


Loving You Is a Losing Game

by Current_Queen_Of_Hell



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - College/University, Babysitter Nico di Angelo, Dancer Leo Valdez, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, Leo's kind of a brat sometimes but I love him anyway, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nico di Angelo is Bad at Feelings, Nico studies literature, Reality TV, Talent Shows, Will and Leo hook up sometimes don't worry no feelings involved there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Current_Queen_Of_Hell/pseuds/Current_Queen_Of_Hell
Summary: Leo met Nico when he was eight, after breaking his flower pot. Nico moves away four years later to go to college. That's the last time Leo sees him in person.They meet again when Leo attends a dance competition at Nico's college. Seeing each other again after such a long time is disorienting and Leo has a hard time staying away from the boy who once compared him to the stars.(Title may be subject to change)
Relationships: Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Nico di Angelo/Leo Valdez, minor Luke Castellan/Leo Valdez, minor Will Solace/Leo Valdez
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this idea is entirely experimental and I don't intend for this to be longer than maybe four to six chapters with tops like 20-25000 words so don't get your hopes up too much lmao
> 
> Anyway I'm still excited for this nil bc the idea just seemed interesting to me
> 
> Also in this Leo and Nico are both low key rich bc they live in a suburban area in massive houses respectively so be aware of that I guess  
> (If a six year age difference is too much for you just tap out now bc that's literally what this is but don't worry nothing happens until Leo is 19)

Leo hates his siblings.

They’re loud and they argue too much. He never understood why in God’s name his parents decided to have seven kids. Leo would have been perfectly content with only one or two siblings, maybe a dog. Not six of them. Especially when he’s not even the oldest. In fact, he has the worse fate of all. He’s not the oldest like Charlie and Nyssa, or the second oldest like Jake. He’s also not the youngest like Harley. He’s stuck somewhere in the middle with Shane and Chris, waiting for the day his siblings will quit treating him like a baby. Until then, he’ll have to endure his siblings doting on him like a baby. He’s not a baby. He’s already seven. He’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much.

Besides, no matter what Shane or Chris say, Leo is the coolest of them all. And the funniest. Their mum says so. Of course, not out loud, she would never claim favorites, she’s too nice for that. But Leo knows, from the way she always smiles the widest when he brings her something he made, or the way she always lets him help her cook even though he’s not old enough to be doing much. He knows. He also knows that each one of them has something none of the others have. Charlie is the oldest which inherently makes him the pride of their family. Leo’s dad would never admit it but he’s proudest of Charlie. Nyssa is the second oldest and the smartest. Her grades are fantastic and she’s on two sports teams in school. It makes the perfect child to brag about at Garden parties. Jake is on the student council and recently broke his leg which means their parents care about him most right now. Plus, it’s a good way to get sympathy points when talking to the neighbors. Shane always does all his chores and helps their parents fix anything that might break around the house. He’s good for planning ahead for. Everyone already knows he’ll make it big. He’ll be the pride of the family one day. Chris is the cool one with the most friends in school and endless invitations for play dates and hangouts. He's the social butterfly. Harley is the youngest and therefore the favorite anyway. He was born last year and since then the house hasn’t know a single second of quiet. The neighbors love him, and their parents have gotten too many baby shower and presents after the birth to count. Harley is everyone’s favorite, even of the siblings. No one can resist him. Nobody tries to anyway.

And Leo, Leo’s the funny one. He always has been. He laughs the loudest and he comes up with the weird pranks that lead to broken furniture that Shane ends up fixing. Leo’s there to lighten the mood. The kid, who at garden parties spends the time playing with the younger ones and chatting with the adults. He knows he’s adorable. The adults know it too.

So really, it makes no sense for him to be sent to detention for pulling a prank in school. It’s his thing. He’s the funny one. Pranks are what he does. He shouldn’t be punished for it. Besides, the prank had been his idea in the first place. Piper had been the one to think of it. It’d been her idea to put glue on their teacher’s chair at the beginning of class. It’d been a glorious prank, if Leo does say so himself. So no, he should not be punished for what was clearly the best thing to happen all month.

Piper giggles next to him as they exit the school. Detention had been boring. They’d been told to sit there and think about what they did for an hour. An absolute waste of time, if you ask Leo. Still, it could have been worse.

“Do you think your parents will be angry?” Piper asks as they make their way home through the small neighborhood. It’s a rich area. With nice cars and even nice houses. There’s no danger. The worst thing that could happen was someone’s dog escaping.

“Dad’s gonna be so mad.” He tells her, fiddling with the strap of his backpack, “But I think mum will be fine.”

Piper nods, “My dad probably doesn’t even know.”

“He sucks.”

She pushes his side and glares at him, “Shut up! My dad’s fine!”

“But he doesn’t care! He never picks you up from school!”

“Your dad doesn’t either.”

“He’s busy.” He says resolutely.

“So’s mine.”

“You’re just angry that I’m right.”

Instantly Piper shoves her hands into is sides to tickle him. She has a dark look on her face, but Leo knows she doesn’t mean anything by it. They’re just messing around. Both of them know her dad sucks. But they don’t say it. Just like Leo promised not to tell his parents that Piper’s home alone more often than not.

“My mum’s making pasta for dinner.” He says when she finally stops tickling him. It’s their way of saying she’ll stay over. He doesn’t have to ask her to anymore. Hasn’t had to in ages. Leo tells her what’s for dinner and she nods and asks what’ll be for breakfast the following day. They don’t really ask her dad anymore either. They used to at the start, and at first her dad had worried that Piper would be too much to handle for the Valdez family, but Leo’s mum had assured him that it’d be fine and since then Piper may as well live at Leo’s house. Their family is big anyway, one person more doesn’t make a difference. So, Piper is a permanent fixture at Leo’s house. She’s his favorite sister.

“My dad’s throwing a garden party tomorrow.” Piper says, “He told me to ask you guys to come.”

“Do you think your mum will bake something?”

Piper shrugs and walks a bit faster, turning to walk backward, “I dunno. She’s coming home tomorrow. I want strawberry cake, though.”

“Ew, no chocolate is better.”

“You’re so wrong.”

“Am not.” He argues

“Are too.”

They get so caught up in arguing that Leo misses the car in the driveway they pass and doesn’t warn Piper about it. The next thing both of them know is that Piper falls backward, and Leo falls over himself trying to catch her. In the process he knocks against one of the flowerpots near the driveway. There’s a loud crash and Leo hears someone cry out loudly. It takes him a second to understands that he’s the one crying. Piper scrambles to her feet and grabs his hands. Leo looks down at them to find that both he and Piper have a matching set of bruises on their elbows along with a few painful looking scratches on Leo’s hands from trying to break his fall. The tears fall from his eyes before he can stop them and for a second, he doesn’t understand why he’s crying. Then the pain sits in and his hands burn. He sobs and tries to move them but the red abrasions on his hands won’t let him. Instead it stings more, and he regrets moving his hands the moment he tries.

Out of the corner of his mind he can hear Piper freak out and then there’s another voice. But Leo is too focused on crying to take in what’s happening around him. Then suddenly he hears a loud gasp and there’s a lady standing in front of him.

“My daffodils!” The lady cries out kneeling in front of the broken pot. Oh right. There’s a broken pot. Leo comes back to himself enough to register the lady kneeling next to him staring at the flowers and a boy standing next to Piper, holding a skateboard.

“Which one of you broke them?” The lady asks angrily. Leo shrieks back trying to get up and away as fast as possible. Just as he’s about to shakily admit his mistake the boy next to Piper speaks up.

“I did. I was skateboarding and didn’t see the two of them and crashed into the flowers trying to avoid them. I’m sorry.” He tells her. It’s a complete lie, that much even Leo can understand.

“What did I tell you about skateboarding when it’s getting dark?” She asks him her voice tight.

He stares back at her, “To be careful. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t see it and knocked it over.”

The lady frows and picks up the broken pieces, “Just be careful next time, yeah? I don’t want to get angry at you.”

With that she shoots the three of them one last weary look and then disappears up the driveway and into a massive house. Leo watches her go, his hands completely forgotten between the fear of getting caught and trying to understand what’s going on. When he looks over Piper seems just as lost, though at least she’s standing now.

“Are you alright?” The boy asks Leo, snapping him out of it. Leo’s eyes flick up to him.

“Why’d you lie to your mum?” Leo asks him instead of answering. “My mum says we shouldn’t like to people.”

The boy laughs and kneels down to be on the same level as Leo, “Because you were crying, and I thought that if she found out you’ll cry even more.”

“I’m not a crybaby.” Leo tells him.

“I didn’t say you were. I just didn’t want you two to cry any more than you already have.”

“But you still shouldn’t lie to your mum. My mum says it’s bad.”

“It wasn’t really a lie. I _was_ skateboarding.” The boy says, “Besides, she would’ve gotten angry at you two and like I said I didn’t want you to cry more.”

“I’m old enough to speak for myself. I’m almost eight!”

“See, you’re tiny.”

Leo narrows his eyes at him, his hands completely forgotten, “How old are you then?”

The boy smiles, “Old enough to lie to my mum.”

Leo’s just about to answer before he feels someone tugging on his arm to pull him up from where he’s sitting on the ground.

“Come on, Leo.” Piper says, a calming presence in Leo’s confusing and loud head right now, “Your mum’s gonna get worried about us. Let’s go.”

She pulls at his shoulders and he gets up reluctantly.

The boy smiles at them, “You should go. I don’t want your mum and my mum to get angry at me.”

With that he waves at them, retreating toward the same house the lady had disappeared into. Leo watches him go, still confused as to what happened.

Piper keeps pulling at his shoulders, “Come one, we have to get you’re a band-aid or something. Your mum is probably worried already.”

Leo doesn’t know how to answer for once in his life, so he simply shuts up and follows Piper down the road to where his house is.

When they step through the door his mum is instantly on them, a worried expression on their face. Piper explains what happened and Leo’s mum makes them both hot chocolate while Charlie cleans Leo’s hands and put balm on Piper’s bruises. Leo gets dinosaur patterned band-aids for his hands. His mum tells him he’s the coolest kids in town. He believes her.

* * *

Leo doesn’t see the boy again for weeks until one day the boy is standing at their front door. As it turns out he’s the same age as Jake, 14. Leo doesn’t like it. He learns that the boy’s name is Nico and that he’s Jake’s new best friend. The two hang out almost every day, and when they’re not out at the park skateboarding, or doing whatever else it is they do, they’re at Leo’s house playing on Jake’s console.

But Leo can’t bring himself to hate Nico for being friends with his brother. Nico always comes by Leo’s room before going to Jake’s and always takes the time to talk to Leo. He helps him with his homework, and he teaches him short phrases in Italian. Not just that, but he’s nice to Leo. Not like Jake who’d feed Leo to the dogs and is only ever nice when their parents are around, it’s Christmas or it’s Leo’s birthday. Every other day of the week Jake’s mean. He doesn’t punch Leo and he doesn’t push him around, but he gets annoyed at Leo. He complains and acts embarrassed when Leo has to tag along with Jake and his friends. Jake refuses to talk to him when he has to take Leo with him to the soccer court or when he wants to get ice cream and their mum tells them to take Leo with him. Jake’s friends aren’t terrible, and they aren’t mean. They let Leo kick the ball and once in a while Jake even buys Leo an ice cream as well without Leo having to whine and threaten to tell their mum. But Jake isn’t nice. Leo thinks big brothers never are.

But Nico is.

Nico is always nice. He listens to Leo when he rambles about the sky and he watches Leo when Leo tells him to. He helps Leo with his English homework and he helps him study vocabulary. One day he even gets Leo’s vocabulary table laminated for him.

When Leo asks him to, Nico helps him hang up a poster in his room and they laugh and giggle together.

The third time Nico comes by their house he stops by Leo’s room when he finds that Jake isn’t awake yet. He sits with Leo who explains the different constellations to him and Nico listens. Leo stops abruptly when Nico lifts his hand to trace the freckles and moles on Leo’s face. He smiles at Leo and pinches his cheek telling Leo his freckles are pretty and so is Leo. He tells him Leo’s freckles are like the stars just better because they’re pretty night and day all year round.

Then Jake comes by their room and tells Leo to quit bothering Nico so much and the two disappear into Jake’s room not to be seen again for the rest of the day.

Leo spends his days with Piper after that even more than before. He tells her about Nico, and she listens patiently. They hang out and they get into detention, but nothing comes close to that first time he met Nico. Somehow Leo is thankful that he got detention for that stupid prank. Otherwise he wouldn’t have ever talked to Nico.

* * *

Nico is at their place again, gone somewhere in Jake’s room. Leo doesn’t want to think about it. Doesn’t want to think about the fact that he’s not Nico’s favorite. It’s too loud in the house anyway. Harley keeps crying and his parents keep arguing. Charlie and Nyssa are working on Charlie’s college project and Shane and Chris are wreaking havoc again. It’s too much. Leo doesn’t think he can take much more. So, he grabs his jacket and backpack, shoves two sets of clothes inside and runs out of his room, past his mother only yelling a quick ‘Going to Piper’s place' before he closes the front door behind him. Finally, it’s quiet and Leo can hear himself think.

Piper is in her room when he goes to her house. She’s staring at a pink leotard with a big stain on it.

“A girl spilled her orange juice on it.” She tells Leo, her cheeks wet, eyebrows furrowed in anger, “She said it was an accident but she doesn’t like that I’m the teacher’s favorite.”

“Did you throw your drink back at her?” Leo asks because he doesn’t know what else Piper could have done.

“No. I didn’t want to get in trouble.”

That’s a first. “Why not?”

“The girls all hate me. They’ll get meaner if I do something.”

Leo frowns, “Did you tell your dad?”

“He doesn’t care.”

Leo can’t bring himself to be surprised so he just sits with her and holds her hand as she stares at the stained leotard. He doesn’t know how to help her.

“Come to dance with me.” She asks but it comes out more like a statement.

“What?”

“Come to dance with me.” Piper repeats, “I won’t be alone, and the girls will all be jealous that I’m friends with a boy.”

“Pipes I can’t dance.”

“You’ll learn! That’s what class is for!”

“Pipes–,”

“No, really! I can teach you some beforehand, so you’ll be better than everyone else. Please, Leo.”

Leo stares at her trying to come up with any other reason, “My dad says dancing is for girls. Boys can’t dance.”

She grips his hand tighter, “That’s stupid. Boys can do whatever they want. Please?”

“Piper, I can’t dance at all. I don’t even like dance.”

She narrows her eyes at him and shuffles closer, “You’ll have an excuse not to be home. You won’t have to talk to Jake, _and_ you can invite Nico to our recitals.”

Leo can’t help but feel his heart swell at both prospects.

“Just once.” He says finally, “Just once.”

She lights up like a Christmas tree and gives him the tightest hug he’s ever received.

* * *

He goes once and then he goes twice and by the third time he doesn’t want to leave anymore. The other girls there stop bullying Piper when they see that she’s friends with a boy who lets her hug him. The teacher is delighted to have a boy in the group for once and loves him like her own son. He gets to spend less time at home where it’s too loud to even exist in peace _and_ he gets to avoid having to go places with Jake. It’s perfect. The only thing he doesn’t like is not seeing Nico as much.

Leo goes straight to dance practice after school with Piper. The two take the bus to the downtown area of the town and spend two hours at practice before going home. By the time they’re home Leo is too busy doing homework and doing chores to have time to talk to Nico much. Leo and Piper go to dance three times a week. At first, it’d only been once, the ballet class where the girls hated Piper.  
Then Piper had asked him to come to her jazz class as well and Leo had been curious enough to agree. Then she’d mentioned her hip-hop class and it hadn’t been hard to sway Leo into coming at all. In fact, he’d agreed before she could even ask. Really, Leo was tempted to go four times a week but his parents had drawn the line at three.

Convincing his parents in the first place had been hard enough. Leo’s dad was convinced that dance is for girls only and Leo’s mum had been too worried about Leo and Piper going downtown alone to agree quickly. Still he’d gotten through to them and ended up in a bus downtown in black tights, a white t-shirt and an excited grin on his face.

Sitting on that bus alone with Piper was perfect. Just the two of them with no one to tell Leo’s he’s being annoying or to tell him off for being too energetic. It was heaven on earth. Every bus ride to and from dance class was like a bolt of fresh air after spending all day in a stuffed classroom.

But then winter came, and the days got shorter and Leo’s mum got worried about him and Piper being on the bus alone at only eight years old. She’d been fine as long as it was still bright out and Leo agreed to keep his newly gifted phone on at all times. He’d only gotten the phone because his mum was too busy to drive them to dance but too worried to not have him be able to communicate. So, he’d gotten a phone which was to be used only to communicate with her or his dad.

But in winter it wasn’t enough for her. So, she’d sent Jake to pick Leo and Piper up. Jake is 14 so their mum had deemed him fit to pick them up. Not that she’d been happy about that. She’d have much rather sent Charlie or Nyssa both of whom were already 16 and 19 respectively. But they’d been too busy with school and Charlie wasn’t home half the time anyway, so Jake had been the next best option. Their mum hadn’t liked it. Jake and Leo don’t like it either. Because really, Jake is an asshole and Leo would have rather gotten kidnapped than be picked up by his annoying older brother.

Still, he doesn’t stop going to dance. It’s the only place Leo thinks he can be himself without repercussions. Every new step he learns is a new step to being free of the stuffy big house and his overbearing siblings.

* * *

He meets a nice boy at their hip-hop class who quickly becomes part of Leo’s and Piper’s little group. He’s called Jason and he goes to one of the other schools in town. He lives downtown, in a big apartment with his mum and sister who’s in her last year of high school. The three of them become inseparable quickly. Piper and Leo spend nights at Jason’s place instead of going home, after all it’s closer than going home late in the evening. Jason’s mum isn’t home much but Jason’s sister, Thalia, is and she takes care of them happily. Leo likes her. She’s like an older sister he would’ve liked but never got.

As they grow older, their dance classes begin later and get longer. When Leo first began all classes had begun right after school. Every year they got later and by the time Leo turns 12, his classes start at six in the evening and last two hours until eight in the evening. He’s meant to go to bed at ten, so he and Piper just stay at Jason’s place. It’s easier, Leo reasons. He doesn’t want to think about the fact that it’s the only way he can get out of being at home where he doesn’t feel welcome anymore.

Jake gets meaner as his friends get cooler and he stops hanging out with Leo at all. Leo’s meant to help around the house more and the expectations for good grades get higher. But Leo can’t be better. Can’t read well so he just goes to Jason’s to avoid his father’s fury at yet another failing grade.

The only thing he misses when he doesn’t come home his Nico. He has no reason to talk to Nico outside of Nico and Jake’s friendship so when Leo stops coming home so much, he stops seeing Nico and Leo hates it. Hates that by doing the one thing he's good at he misses the one person who makes him feel so, so comfortable. So, he tries not to think about it. Doesn’t let himself. Until one day he has to.

It's Saturday and for once Leo is at home. He’s in his room when Nico knocks on his door, a tired look on his face. He’s holding his skateboard in one hand and his jacket in the other. Without asking he steps into Leo’s room and sits next to Leo on his bed.

“I’m going to college in New York.” He tells Leo, not looking at him.

Leo doesn’t understand. But Nico promises to come visit and keep in contact. He tells Leo that he and Jake both got accepted into the same college and that Nico won’t forget about Leo. Leo grabs him and doesn’t let go until Jake physically pushes him off of Nico. Nico only gives him a pitying look before promising to keep in contact and that he won’t ever forget about his little brother. Nico leaves Leo’s life and leaves his skateboard by Leo’s door.

The day Jake leaves, is the first time Jake is really nice to Leo. He hugs him and doesn’t let go for almost two minutes before leaning down and telling Leo that he loves him. Leo doesn’t know how to respond so he just hugs Jake once more. Jake gives him one of his old beanies and promises to come visit. Then he steps into the car and Leo doesn’t see him or Nico again until Christmas.

* * *

Nico doesn’t come visit and Leo grows up without him. He convinces himself that it’s fine. Really, he’s okay. He learns to keep his excitement to himself.

He has his first kiss when he’s thirteen, with a girl he barley knows, during a stupid game of truth or dare on an overnight school trip. There’s no point in telling Piper because she’s there and telling Jason only ends with a clap on the back and a wide grin.

He gets into his first fist fight when he’s fourteen because a boy said dancing is only for girls and boys can’t dance without being tramps. Leo punches him before he can think better of it and it turns into a fight. He gets detention for the fight. He doesn’t meet Nico afterward this time.

He starts going to dance class five days a week when he’s fifteen because home is becoming too empty to be in anymore. With Charlie, Nyssa, Jake and Shane now all off to college the house feels awfully quiet. Chris is at soccer all day and Harley starts going to school. So, Leo goes to the studio where the music is loud and angry, and he can lose himself in the sound before returning to an empty house that was once too loud to be in. Piper and Jason start dating soon enough and going to Jason’s place over night doesn’t feel right anymore. He lies in his room at night alone and tired, wishing for the boy who loved his freckles so much he placed them with the stars. The boy doesn’t come, and Leo moves on.

He loses his virginity when he’s 16 and regrets it only a bit. The guy he loses it to is two years above him and it’s not terrible. The guy is nice enough and lets Leo stay the night. Still they don’t talk afterward, and Leo doesn’t wish him a nice time at college when he too leaves. He goes home hoping for someone to talk to, to fill the empty feeling his chest.

A few months before his 17th birthday, Leo finds Nico’s Instagram. It’s half empty with only a few photos, none of which are of Nico. Still, Leo follows him. Maybe it’s because he thinks it’s a nice gesture. But really, he knows it’s because he desperately wants to talk to him again.

Leo posts pictures of imself like there’s no tomorrow. He tells himself it’s because he likes the way he looks and wants to share fun moments with the world. Piper says it’s because Leo seeks validation and love from anyone around him. Leo doesn’t listen to her. He keeps posting and his heart swells with every new follower and like. Eventually when the blue check mark appears next to his name, he feels he’s never been happier. He throws a party and gets drunk enough to forget about the one person he actually wants to pay attention to him.

He starts looking into colleges when just before he turns 18. As much as he tries, he can’t find one he likes. He keeps gravitating to a certain college in New York but won’t let himself think about why. He reasons that he just wants to be close to his brother. Still, it doesn’t explain it. If it were because of his siblings he could go to Houston where Charlie is, or Chicago where Nyssa and Shane are but he doesn’t. Hell, Nyssa had always been his favorite so really Chicago should be the obvious answer. But it’s not and Leo knows exactly why it’s not.

He gets his first boyfriend when he’s 18. It doesn’t last long and by the time Leo starts packing for college they break up because they’re just too different. At least that’s what Leo tells himself and the guy when they break up the night before his 19th birthday. He’d spent the gap year between graduating and going to college travelling with Piper and Jason, helping out in his mum’s workshop and staying over at his boyfriend’s house. In the end the year feels too short and when the time comes to leave for college Leo thinks he’d rather turn back time to when he was seven and blissfully unaware of everything that would happen.

He packs his boxes and tells himself that he’ll come to visit often. His mum makes him promise to call once a week at least and even his dad tells him he’ll miss him. By the time he gets in the car with Piper and Jason he thinks that maybe going to college isn’t such a great idea. Who needs college anyway? He can just stay here and work for his mum.

Piper leaves him no time to back out before signaling the taxi driver and driving away from the driveway and Leo’s life. He watches the house pass by and thinks of the black skateboard sitting securely in the trunk.


	2. You take me back like Nintendo

College is on one hand exactly as Leo expected and on the other not at all. He’d expected masses of work and stress coupled with ungodly late hours staying awake to catch up on work he missed because of competitions. Which is what he gets.

He does in fact miss 90% of his recommended sleep and ends up hungover from homework in half his classes. To be frank, he’s surprised he even passes the first semester with how often he sleeps through class and forgets to hand in work. The only class he’s really interested in is Dance but that’s neither part of his major nor one where he can fall asleep.   
Though it is technically necessary to pass the year it’s not in the way he expected. He’d chosen to go for a major in mechanical engineering because that’s what his parents did and that’s what is siblings are doing so it’d seemed like the obvious thing to do.

Except he’d spent the last year of his high school experience working his ass off for a dance scholarship. They’d been rare and far in-between, but he’d won enough competitions with Piper and Jason to finally be eligible for one. After all, no matter how rich his parents are it’s not enough to give him a full ride into the University of Michigan with no dept to pay. So, his parents had urged him to get a scholarship and in exchange they’d pay for accommodations and a car. It’d been absolutely worth it.

Still, Leo sometimes regrets going to Uni at all. Really, he would have been perfectly content ending up as some band’s or singer’s back up dancer. But you can’t dance forever and by the time you’re forty, at the latest, you really gotta find something else to do. Leo figures the degree and the scholarship were an okay compromise.

Which leads him to the newest issue he’s just realized that he’s facing. It’s Piper’s fault. Her fault entirely. Leo has nothing to do with it, whatsoever and he will claim so until the day he dies.   
She bursts into his room sometime after midnight on a Tuesday-going-on-Wednesday. Her laptop is balanced precariously on her hand while she’s excitedly waving for Leo to get up from his place at the kitchen counter and to the couch.

“We got accepted! Leo, look!” She exclaims louder than strictly necessary.

Leo has no idea what’s going on, but it must be good, so he copies her excitement.

“Got into what?”

“This!” Piper moves the laptop so he can see better.

The bright screen nearly blinds him. He’d been staring at ugly papers for too long. When his eyes finally focus on what’s happening in front of him, they go impossibly wide. He’s staring at an email proclaiming with just a bit of fanfare and a lot of pretentious wording that Leo Valdez, Piper McLean and Jason Grace are invited to compete at the New York City Dance Festival. There’s more administrative stuff and the email ends with a stilted ‘ _We hope to see you soon, regards the NYCDF team._ ’  
Leo reads the email, once, twice, three times before he finally tears his eyes away and looks at Piper.

“What is this?” He asks.

“Are you illiterate? We got into the New York dance festival!”

“Yes, I got that. But why, or how? I don’t remember applying.”

She rolls her eyes and closes the laptop shoving it on the couch. She gets up and gets a bottle of water from the kitchen. She grins at him when she turns, “You never apply to anything because you’re too insecure to think you’re good enough for the competition, so I took initiative. If it were up to you, we’d stay practicing in the studio all year. Really, you should thank me.”

“Pipes, that’s the biggest comp in the entire east coast! No way we can compete there!” He nearly yells.

“Why not? We got in, didn’t we?” She asks, “I sent in a few videos, and clearly it was good enough for us to get into the first round. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“What’s the worst that can happen? Do you hear yourself? Piper, we’ll embarrass ourselves in front of the entire country.”

“No we won’t. We’ll be fine.”

Leo wants to argue more but Piper shoots him a look that tells him the conversation is over. She grabs her laptop and shuffles to her bedroom.

“Get your shit together, the comp starts in two weeks. I already got us plane tickets so you can’t back out.”  
With that she’s gone and Leo’s left to his thought. A terrible fate. He leans back on the sofa and stares at the ceiling trying to wrap his head around what just happened. Somehow, Piper got them into a dance competition. Now, normally this wouldn’t be weird. Leo’s used to competitions. It’s what he does. It’s what he practices for half the time. The issue is the competition in question.

Not only is it the New York City Dance Festival – which has arguably been Leo’s dream since he was like eight years old – but it is in New York. That’s the main issue here. Leo will fight through the competition somehow. He always does. Otherwise he wouldn’t have the scholarship or the trophies standing in his room back home. No, the competition itself is the smallest problem. He has the support of his followers who will be ecstatic knowing he’s competing again, especially in something as big as the NYC Dance festival.

The problem is Nico. Well, actually it’s Jake, but therefore by extension also Nico.

You see, Leo’s been avoiding Jake. Sure, they get along better now that they’re older and Leo’s matured enough to laugh at most of Jake’s tasteless jokes and Jake sees Leo as enough of an equal to stop being embarrassed by him but they’re not close. Not like Leo is with Nyssa or Charlie or Harley. He hasn’t spoken to Jake since Leo left for college. He’d never visited Jake at college either. The only conversations had been on Christmas – a small text and a few photos of Leo’s, Jason’s and Piper’s sad Christmas tree – and on their respective birthdays but that had only been quick birthday wishes before both of them had rushed back to class. Leo has no idea what’s going on in Jake’s life, and by extension in Nico’s.

He’d texted Nico a few times, couldn’t help himself, and Nico had even responded but it’d never lasted long. Leo never wanted to video call and Nico never had time to text for a long time. Nico never posted anything that could lead to a conversation that wouldn’t have felt awkward and Leo posted too much to be noteworthy anymore. Really, the only form of steady interaction had been liking one another’s posts every time. That’s all it was.

Leo never saw Nico on any of his Instagram or Twitch lives. He never saw Nico looking at his stories and Nico also never commented on any of Leo’s posts. So, Leo hadn’t commented either. He hadn’t been able to stop himself from watching Nico’s occasional stories, but he’d refrained from commenting. Nico had gone live once. Leo had nearly had a heart attack when he’d gotten the notification (yes, he turned on post notifications for Nico, he’s a weak man what can you do). He’d been too terrified of what he might find to click on the live. Too terrified that Nico would see that Leo was watching and call him out on it. Or even worse, that Jake would see. He would never let Leo live it down.

Jake had discovered Leo’s immature crush somewhere around the time Leo was sixteen and he hadn’t left Leo alone with it since. So, Jake finding anything that could be even remotely stalker-y would be Leo’s death sentence.

The thing is though, Leo has to tell Jake that he’s coming to New York. He’d promised to come visit should he ever be in New York. And well, the dance competition will be broadcast, and not even Jake is that dense as to not notice. At the least he’d maybe message Leo about which of the contestants he likes best, or why he hasn’t applied as well. So, Leo can’t pretend he’s not in New York. Jake would find out and then he’d get annoyed at Leo for not telling him which would turn into another argument and that is absolutely not what Leo needs. He rather like to avoid unnecessary arguments, thank you very much.

It’s even worse if Nico finds out about the competition without Leo telling him. Nico has always been interested in what Leo does. Not because he likes dance or astronomy or anything else that Leo’s into but because he’s Leo’s friend. Therefore, if Nico finds out that Leo’s in New York and didn’t tell him Leo can kiss any chance at maybe furthering a relationship with Nico goodbye.

Leo sighs deeply and gets up to get a bottle of cold water. He needs something to wake him up properly before he can call Jake to tell him the news. And fuck, he should also tells the rest of his family. It’s not every day you get invited to the biggest dance competition along the east coast.

He downs the entire bottle in one go. It’s not cold enough to wake him up properly but it’s better than nothing.

The phone rings five times. Leo almost thinks Jake won’t pick up. It is late already anyway. Leo’s about to hang up when Jake’s annoying voice crackles through the line.

“Leo? What do you want?” He mumbles, “You do know it’s like 1 am, right? I was in the middle of beating Percy at COD.”

“Hey. Yeah.” Leo answers awkwardly. He really has no idea how to tell him. He can’t just go ‘ _Hey we haven’t spoken in a year because we don’t get along but I’m coming to New York wanna hang out and maybe can you hook me up with Nico?_ ’. Yeah, no. That’s now what he can say.

“Well what is it? I was seconds away from winning.”

“It is. It is. I promise.”

“Well?”

Leo takes a deep breath, steadies himself by holding onto the kitchen counter and then blurts everything out in one go, “Piper got us into the NYC Dance festival and I’m coming to New York in two weeks and I thought maybe I could stay at your place? It’ll be cheaper than getting a hotel and I don’t even know how long I’ll stay because of the comp so staying with you would be a lot easier. Also of course do you want to hang out while I’m there?”

It’s not what Leo meant to say but he thinks it’s not terrible given it’s late at night and he feels like he just drove off of rainbow road in Mario Cart.

“Hold on. Slow down.” Jake says slowly, “You’re coming to New York?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re going to compete in your dream competition?”

“Yes.”

“And you want to stay with me?”

“ _Yes_.”

Jake laughs loudly on the other end, “Who are you and what did you do to my little brother?”

“Shut up. I know it’s surprising. But will you let me stay?”

“Do you seriously think I’d let you stay in some shifty hotel here?”

Leo goes quiet on the other end and mumbles incoherently. Jake scoffs loudly, sounding more awake than before.

“Leo, I know we don’t get along that well but I’m not that terrible of a brother. Come on, I would never let you stay in a motel or some shit. Nico would murder me, not to mention mum and dad.”

“Nico would?” Leo nearly chokes when he hears Jake’s words.

Jake laughs again, “You heard what I said. Don’t be so surprised, you know he cares about you.”

“Yeah, but he never like said anything.”

Leo can hear Jake shake his head on the other end of the line, “Look bro, just tell me when you’re coming and I’ll get the couch nice and soft for you. Maybe I’ll even give you a pillow or a blanket.”

“Fuck you, man. Don’t you have a guest room?”

“I’m not a millionaire Leo, I can’t afford rich people rooms.”

“Whatever. You’ll have to deal with me on your couch for at least two or three weeks.”

“I can always kick you out if you get too annoying, don’t test me.”

“I thought Nico would kill you?”

Jake scoffs, “It’d be worth it to be rid of you.”

Leo laughs. He should have known that calling Jake wouldn’t be as terrible as he’d thought. It never is. Jake had never been terrible to him. He’d just been embarrassed over having a whiny little brother. 

He runs Jake through the competition dates and his flight details. Jake writes everything down and occasionally asks for clarification. Leo tells Jake not to worry about Piper and Jason, Piper’s dad has a tiny one room apartment in New York where they’ll stay. When Jake asks why Leo doesn’t stay there Leo tells him he’s not in the mood to wake up to the two fucking every other night. Jake laughs loud enough to nearly wake his roommate. Which, yeah that’s another thing. Jake has a roommate, Percy. Leo is so not excited to be sleeping on some dude’s couch he’s never met before. Still, it’s better than booking a motel in some ditch.

“Are you gonna tell Nico you’re coming?” Jake asks when they’re done going through everything.

Leo falls silent, “I want to. But I don’t wanna seem needy or like I’m too eager to see him, you know?”

“Leo, bro, you’re way past that already. Just text him.”

“But we haven’t talked in months!”

“So? We haven’t talked in months either, but you called me at one in the morning to ask whether you can stay at my place for at least two weeks.”

“But that’s different. You’re my brother. He’s…”

Leo can practically hear Jake roll his eyes on the other end of the line, “The love of your life?”

“Will shut up? I don’t love him. I just kinda think he’s neat.”

“If that’s you thinking someone’s neat, I don’t want to know what you loving someone looks like.”

“I hate you.” Leo tells him.

“I love you too.”

Leo groans and drops his head on the kitchen counter before answering, “You’re his best friend, can’t you just like, I don’t know, let it slip to him that I’m coming and tell me what he says?”

“You want me to just randomly mention that you’re coming to see whether he turns into a blushing school girl?”

“No! Just like, say that you have to pick me up from the airport or some shit. Or that I’ll be at your place for a while so you might not have as much time to hang out with him because you have to hang out with me. You guys are best friends, don’t you talk about what’s happening in your lives?”

“Who says I’ll hang out with you?” Jake challenges.

“Mum and dad.” Leo answers easily, “If we don’t send at least five pictures every day they’ll kill us when we visit them the next time.”

“But that doesn’t mean I have to tell Nico. You could just tell him yourself.”

“Come on, dude. Please?”

“What do I get in exchange?”

Leo racks his brain to find anything that could make Jake to this for him. He grins when he finally finds what he was looking for. “I won’t tell mum you crashed the Audi because you were making out with Jessica.”

Leo hears a sharp intake of breath and a long silence before Jake answers, “You wouldn’t.”

“Watch me.”

“Leo…”

“Tell Nico that I’m coming without being obvious that I asked you to, and mum will forever think I crashed the car.”

“You’re the absolute worst person on the planet and I hope you rot in hell.”

“Will you do it?”

Jake groans, “Fine. But you keep your mouth shut about the car or I will skewer you.”

“Cross my heart and I hope to die.”

“Yeah I sure hope so.”

Leo laughs menacingly and the line goes dead. The moment the room goes silent Leo breaths deeply again. Maybe it’s not gonna be terrible after all. Just maybe he can spend the next two weeks not living in constant panic and anxiety. Besides, even if Nico reacts to Leo being in New York, Leo won’t have that much time anyway. He’ll be at practice with Piper and Jason nearly every day anyway. He has to ace this, otherwise this will be the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to him. Even worse than the time one of his teachers caught him and his ex, making out under the bleachers during a football game. This will be so much worse if Leo fucks up.

Leo spends the next two hours emailing all his professors that he’ll be gone for a while because of the competition. It’s nothing new and most of them respond in the morning telling him they’ll send him all the work. A few answer nearly two minutes after he sends the email and Leo seriously wonders why they’re awake at almost three in the morning and answering emails. He doesn’t judge though. After all he was the one who sent the emails at an ungodly hour in the first place. He has no room to judge anyone on their lack of a sleep schedule.

* * *

He spends the entire next day sitting in class, fidgeting with the bottom of his sweater waiting for what Jake says. There’s no guarantee that Jake will have told Nico already, they don’t live together and even if they’re best friends that doesn’t mean they see each other every day. And anyway, Jake could easily lie. He could just say he told Nico and that the latter had no reaction and Leo would never know any better. Leo turns it all around in his head until it turns into mush and he feels he has to lie down lest he die of an aneurism.

At around lunch time he finally gets a message from Jake. Leo nearly trips over himself to reach for his phone across the lunch table.

> _I told him. He says that he’s proud of you for getting into your dream comp._

That’s all the message says, and Leo can feel his heart shattering at the words. Realistically he’d known that Nico wouldn’t be terribly excited to see him, no one ever is. But deep down he’d hoped that Nico would be just as excited to see Leo as Leo is to see him. Deep down he’d hoped that Nico had missed him.

Leo sends a quick thank you message and promises not to tell their mum about the Audi before turning off his phone and refusing to look at it for the rest of the day. Jason shoots him a worried look across the table and Leo excuses himself to go the studio, claiming he still has some practice to get done. It’s a valid excuse. He’d picked Dance as a minor which gives him permanent access to the dance studios at any time of day. He likes them better than the labs, although the labs are a great place to calm down. But right now Leo doesn’t want to calm down he wants to get all the frustration out and the only way he can imagine is to turn up the loudest music he can find, lock the door to the studio and dance until his feet hurt and he can’t move anymore much less think.

The studio is empty. It’s lunch break. Nobody spends their lunch at the studio when they could be eating.

He throws his bag into the corner and turns on the stereo, playing whatever song he can find on his phone. Losing himself in the music has always been easier than thinking.

* * *

The two weeks pass faster than Leo anticipated and soon enough he finds himself furiously shoving clothes into a too small suitcase. Piper is doing much the same running through the apartment asking Leo whether she can borrow a pair of joggers from him. The only one who’d packed intelligently and planned ahead had been Jason who’s sitting on the couch watching Netflix with a smug smile on his stupid face.

The flight is way too early in the morning and Leo spends the entire plane ride trying to sleep. He’s never been a fan of flying. Ever since he actually started studying mechanical engineering he doesn’t trust planes as much as he used to. Jason seems all too happy to be up in the sky and Piper spends the entire time watching horror movies on the tiny TV screen in front of her. It doesn’t help that Leo got the seat between Piper and Jason. Jason had wanted to sit at the window to watch the scenery and clouds (an absolute lunatic idea if you ask Leo) and Piper had wanted to sit near the corridor claiming it’d be easier to get up should she feel restless. Also, extra space. She’d called dibs first claiming she deserved it because she paid for the tickets. Leo hates that she has a point. So, he sits between them trying to fall asleep to the best of his ability. Eventually he does manage to fall asleep, his head resting on Jason’s shoulder and Piper playing with his hands while he sleeps. It makes the flight almost bearable.

Jake picks them up from the airport. Leo had told him not to, that the three of them could each call a cab and Leo would find the way to Jake’s apartment on his own. Jake had called him an idiot and told him to stop being so much work and let Jake pick him up.

Leo steps off the plane, a pillow in one hand and a weak grasp on reality in the other. He looks around the entrance hall for someone resembling Jake. Unfortunately for him, a man of average height with brown hair and a dumb smile isn’t as unique as Leo had hoped. He does eventually spot his nuisance of a brother. In the midst of people seeing their loved ones again Leo spots him. There almost at the back of the hall stands Leo’s least favorite brother.

He’s holding a massive sign that says: ‘ _Welcome back from rehab_ ’ and Leo nearly drops his pillow in his haste to punch the shit out of Jake.

“You absolute piece of garbage.” Leo tells him, nearly ripping the sign from his hands.

Jake laughs loudly, “I thought it was fitting.”

“Just get us home. I’m tired.”

“Whatever princess.”

The four of them make their way to Jake’s overpriced car and Jake maneuvers them into the city. Leo’s never been to New York before. He’d refused to visit Jake and other than Jake and Nico there hadn’t been anything really interesting in New York that he wanted to see. Still driving into the city now Leo can’t help his mouth falling open as he looks at the skyscrapers illuminating the cloudy night sky. He grew up in the suburbs of Detroit but that hadn’t prepared him for New York. Neither had it prepared him for the sight of Jake’s disgustingly small apartment.

Jake had dropped off Jason and Piper near a subway station so they could get to Piper’s apartment easier and then driven home to his own. Jake spends nearly an hour looking for a parking spot. Leo would laugh at him but he’s too desperate to get under a blanket to really find anything funny in the situation.

Jake’s apartment is, well, sad. The windows are big but that’s about it concerning anything of merit. There’s an old couch in the middle of the living room and an even sadder loveseat next to it. Down the hallway Leo can see two doors and a bathroom and that’s it. The kitchen is smaller than Leo could have thought possible.

“Is this really what mum and dad are letting you live in?” Leo asks. He tries not to let his disdain shine through.

“This is New York, anything bigger than this and you need a fortune to pay for it. Besides, we have a microwave, a TV and a couch that’s all you need.”

“It’s really not.”

Jake laughs, “If you think this is sad you should see Nico’s apartment. It’s even worse.”

Leo tries not to let his heart beat faster at the mention of Nico. He just can’t help himself. The last two weeks he’d spent every waking moment between classes in the studio. To anyone who asked he told that he was there to prepare for the upcoming competition. In reality he’d been there to try and not think about a certain boy from his childhood. It would have been pathetic if anyone had found out.

“Just give me a blanket and let me sleep.” He tells Jake.

* * *

It takes him nearly a week before he goes to see Nico for the first time. He spends the first two days getting administrative shit done with Jason and Piper. Getting signed in for the competition, getting their schedules and locations along with the rules and first prompt and song for the first round. The next three days are spent in the studio provided by the NYC Dance Festival. The three of them try out anything they can think of, be it aggressive or calm enough to put even the calmest of men to sleep. Jake berates Leo for always coming back to the apartment no earlier than 4 am but Leo just ignores him and leaves at eight the next morning again. He’s ended up sleeping in the studio more than once.   
Jake asks him once whether he actually wants to see Nico or whether he’s ignoring him. Leo tells him that the competition is more important than any stupid infatuation he has and leaves to go to the studio.

On Sunday he gets an angry message from his mother asking him why he didn’t tell her he was visiting his brother and taking part in the dance festival. Leo promises to send photos and starts with one of Jake eating breakfast looking like a truck hit him. Jake nearly throws him out of the window in retaliation. It’s worth it though.

Jake and Leo facetime with Harley on Sunday because he was excited to talk to both his brothers at the same time and Leo can’t deny that it’s nice to see Harley again as well.

So, really, it’s not Leo’s fault that it takes him a week until he sees Nico in person for the first time in almost eight years.

On Monday he can’t avoid Nico any longer. Jake drags him out of the dance studio an hour before lunch and shoves him right into a subway. Leo barely has time to protest before Jake tells him to shut up and just go along with it. Leo thinks he’s being kidnapped for a few seconds before he decides that jake is too stupid to do that.   
The building they find themselves in front of is, well surprising. It’s a massive skyscraper with a very fancy and pretentious feel to it. There’s a red carpet in front of the entrance and Leo can see a reception desk in the building.

“What exactly are we doing here?” Leo asks Jake as they step into the building, “You’re not about to sell me into some organ harvesting rink, right?”

Jake rolls his eyes at him, “Just follow me and don’t be a nuisance.”

“Seriously Jake, what is this?”

“You said you wanted to see Nico again, right?”

Leo gapes at him and nearly forgets to follow him into the elevator, “Excuse me? You said Nico’s apartment sucks!”

“It does. He doesn’t live here.”

“So why are we here?” Leo presses.

Jake’s grin widens and he shrugs casually, “Nico housesits and does some babysitting for this family who lives here.”

“We’re allowed to be here then?”

“The family doesn’t mind if we come over. I always come around when he’s housesitting for more than a day.”

“So he’s just sitting in that house watching TV or what?” It dawns on Leo that he has no actual concept of what exactly housesitting is and he’s beginning to regret asking when Jake shoots him an offended look.

“No, he also takes care of the kids. God do you ever listen?”

Leo wants to answer but the elevator doors open and suddenly they’re only one door away from Nico. Leo swallows and looks down at himself. He’s still wearing the clothes he’d put on for practice and he hadn’t even had a chance to shower yet. God, he must look like an absolute mess. With the big old white hoodie and ugly ripped jeans. The only thing that could make this set of clothing even remotely an outfit is the plaid shirt Leo had stolen from Jason two days ago and tied around his waist. Still, he thinks he looks like absolute crap. Fuck, even his sneakers are old and worn out. He only wears them to practice because they’re so walked through that they’re comfortable enough to walk in.   
Leo pulls his black baseball hat further into his face in a sad attempt at hiding beneath it.

“He does know that I’m here, right?” Leo asks.

Jake doesn’t even pause in unlocking the door while he answers, “Here in New York? Yes. Here at the apartment? No.”

Leo feels his heart drop into his stomach “Jake!” he calls out.

“What? He’ll find out now anyway. Too late to go back.”

With that Jake opens the door and steps inside. When Leo’s eyes adjust to the bright light coming through the massive windows he nearly faints. The apartment is the exact opposite of Jake’s. The main area is easily as big as Jake’s entire flat. Leo can see an open kitchen area leading into the dining room and living room. There’s a massive staircase leading to a second floor and a hallway leading somewhere with a lot of doors. The whole apartment is very beige and brown. It gives Leo kind of autumn vibes, even though it’s winter already. Leo wonders how rich the family must be to afford this.

“Nico!” Jake calls into the massive flat, “We’re here! Get your ass down here!”

There’s a loud shuffling and some whining before Nico emerges from the hallway leading to the many doors, “Don’t curse, Jake. There’s kids here.” He says and fuck. Leo had not been expecting that. Nico looks, well, different. Of course, he does. Leo hasn’t seen him in eight years but fuck. This? This is some ANTM level transformation.   
Nico had been a cute kid when Leo know him, duh. He’d also been a really good-looking teenager but now, now he’s probably the handsomest man Leo has seen. Which says a lot considering Leo knows Jason and like half the dance world. Still, Nico has matured and it’s impressive and scary.

He’s taller now. When Leo knew him, Nico had been kind of short for his age but he’s grown into himself. Grown into the strange gravelly voice and the deep eyebags and pale skin. Nico has an actual haircut now too. Back in the day he’d had a sad excuse for a mullet and an emo fringe, but he looks like he’s been to the hairdressers any time within the last month. Leo, well, Leo’s impressed. The fact that Nico for some godawful reason turned into probably the hottest man alive only makes Leo feel worse about himself. He knows that he can look good, does look good most of the time. If he has the time to put effort into his appearance. Which he hadn’t today. So now he’s standing in front of his childhood crush in what could possibly be the rattiest outfit Leo could imagine. He wants to disappear into the ground and never come up again.

“Is Perce not coming today?” Nico asks when he’s done berating Jake for swearing.

“No,” Jake says, and Leo can practically hear the mean smirk. He doesn’t like where this is going. “But I brought him.”

Jake steps to the side to reveal Leo to Nico.

Nico’s quiet for a long while. Leo is afraid that Nico will get angry. That he doesn’t want to see Leo. That he’ll send Leo away and stop talking to him forever. But then he feels a body crash into his and there’s a pair of arms around his waist, holding him tightly.

“Oh my God, Leo?” He whispers into the hug, “You’ve grown so much.”

He lets Leo go and steps back a bit to look at him.

“Hey. It’s good to see you again.” Leo waves awkwardly.

“Damn. You look totally different. I guess you finally grew up huh, sunshine?”

God that stupid nickname. That dumb nickname that Nico came up with at some point that Leo could never shake. The one he’d grown so fond of unwillingly. Leo is so screwed. So, so, so screwed. There’s no way he’s surviving the next few weeks. Absolutely no way.

Fuck the competition, Leo’s going back to his dorm in Michigan and never coming out again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is the New York Dance Festival a thing? Who knows. I don't. I don't know anything about American dance competitions, or America in general.
> 
> Anyway, thanks everyone who read this I'm super happy that you did!!!


	3. when the party's over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's kind of a lot going on in this one lmao so good luck   
> I'm low key proud of it tho not gonna lie  
> This ended up longer than intended. I'm sorry. (no I'm not)
> 
> (tags have been updated appropriately)  
> also I hope the tiny flashback is understandable I did my best to show it was a flashback without literally writing 'flashback' over the top so ya lemme know what you think about that
> 
> Otherwise enjoy!!!!!

Nico is exactly like Leo remembers him and it hurts. He’s nice and he laughs at Leo’s jokes and he listens when Leo tells him about the dumb stuff he and Jake have gotten up to since he arrived. And that’s exactly the problem, isn’t it? Nico is nice. He treats Leo like his little brother and Leo never through it would hurt so much to be loved.

“Perce just texted,” Jake tells them a few hours after they’ve been sitting and talking, “He says they’re gonna get wasted tonight.”

“Did he say who’s coming?” Leo doesn’t know all of Jake’s friends, but he knows a good portion of them. At least well enough to strike up a conversation and possibly get laid.

“The usual bunch, I think.” Jake says and excuses himself to go call Percy and get the plans sorted out. It’s awfully quiet when he’s gone.

Leo hums and turns to Nico who’s currently occupied with playing cars with one of the kids he’s meant to be babysitting,

“Are you coming too?”

It’s no question that Leo’s going. There is absolutely no way he can survive his stay in New York without getting plastered every other day. Especially not when he’s meant to be training at least ten hours a day.

“I’m meant to be housesitting. Plus, I can’t leave the kids alone.” Nico says. He doesn’t sound too unhappy.

“Come on, I haven’t seen you in almost a decade and you’re gonna ditch me for _kids_?” Leo whines, “Don’t I mean more to you?”

“Technically you’re also a kid to me, sunshine.”

Leo wants to cry when he hears that stupid nickname along with the reminder that he’ll never be anything but Nico’s little brother from another mother or some shit. Leo shifts in his seat to play with the kid as well. The little boy lights up instantly when Leo tells him something about the car.

The boy reminds Leo a bit of himself and it makes his chest squeeze in a way he’d rather not think about. Watching Nico play with the boy the same way he probably did with Leo hurts. He doesn’t want to think about the fact that Nico will never think of him as a full adult. Never anything more than little sunshine boy with the star freckles.

“I’m a lot more mature than you’d think, you know?” Leo mumbles just between the two of them.

Nico looks up at him suddenly. There’s a look in his eyes that Leo can’t decipher no matter how hard he tries. He pretends not to be bothered by the way Nico looks at him.

“I know. I’ve seen your Instagram, remember?”

Leo does remember. He remembers so many pictures that he’d posted specifically to see whether Nico would react. He never had.

“So why not come party with us?”

“Leo, I have a job here.”

“Don’t you have someone who could do it for you? Just once?”

“Leo…”

“Come on, Neeks.” Leo practically begs. He smiles that smile that he’s been told is hot enough to get into anyone’s pants while still looking innocent enough. Nico seems to be into that nice-sweet boy type of thing, “I’m not here forever. Quit being a prude for once in your life and come party with us. Besides, I just got here, and I don’t know anyone. I’m young, dumb and helpless without you.”

Nico sighs and leans back, pushing one of the toy cars toward the little boy, “I can’t. We can hang out some other time.”

Leo tries not to show his disappointment when he answers, “Fine. Whatever.”

Nico at least has the decency to look guilty. It doesn’t console Leo in the least.

It’s quiet for a long time after Leo lets the party topic be. Jake comes by once only to leave again saying he has to call his professor about one thing or the other. Nico takes the two kids to bed a little after seven and it all feels too domestic. It all just fits, and Leo hates that it does. Nico asked him if he wants to have dinner with Nico and the kids together and Leo agreed. They sit and eat and the two kids, whose names are Carrie and Cosmo as Leo learns, talk to Leo like he’s always been there. Seeing Nico with kids hurts almost more than being treated like one by him.  
The entire time Nico won’t stop calling Leo Sunshine, or Freckles or kid or any other ridiculous nickname he came up with when Leo was ten. It’s a constant reminder of what he is to Nico. And yet, Leo can barely keep himself from reaching across the table and pulling Nico close to him whenever the latter laughs or smiles at something the kids say. Leo thinks these next few weeks will be the worst time of his life.

“How long are you staying?” Nico asks when the kids are finally in bed and it’s only the two of them on the couch, Jake still somewhere arguing over the phone.

“I don’t know. Depends how far we get in the competition.”

Nico hums, “Are you nervous?”

“Nah. I’m Leo Valdez, super-sized McShizzle, I’m never nervous.” He lies. They both know it’s a lie, but Nico doesn’t say anything, so Leo doesn’t either.

“You really have grown up, haven’t you?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s been what? Eight years? Did you think I’d stay five feet tall forever?” Leo jokes.

“That’s not what I meant. You’re not so clingy anymore. You used to hold on to me for dear life whenever I came over. Hell, when I left you cried for almost an hour.”

Leo cringes at the memories. He knows. God, he remembers every painful second of it. He also remembers the endless ridicule he’d undergone thanks to Jake for every tear shed.

“I wonder what happened.” Nico continues, “I kinda thought you’d be hugging me every second of the day just like back then. I guess I thought you’d still be the same eight-year-old kid I knew.”

Leo has to bite is tongue to keep himself from saying ‘ _it’s your fault. You left and I never learned how to love anyone else_ ’. He thinks Nico wouldn’t understand if Leo told him. So, he just laughs and leans further into the sofa.

“We all grow out of our awkward phases. I’m older now, I don’t need to hang all over someone to feel comfortable anymore.” It’s a lie but Leo’s too afraid to tell the truth.

Nico hums and doesn’t answer. Leo’s not sure what to make of it so he grabs the remote and turns on the first show he can find on Netflix. It’s less awkward than trying to decipher the look Nico keeps giving him.

* * *

The club Jake’s friends pick isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s a lot better than the boring frat parties he goes to back in Michigan. The music is louder than Leo’s used to and there’s more people, but he finds he likes it. Likes the endless stream of people moving about and the never-ending laughter and singing.

Jake drags him through the club toward where Leo assumes his friends will be. He feels eyes on him as they move and with every lingering gaze sent is way Leo feels more at home. He straightens his shoulders, squares his hips and channels every inch of confidence he can find within himself. If he can’t get Nico to fuck him, he may as well get laid somewhere else.

His outfit speaks for itself. Jake had accused him of being a try hard and Leo can’t disagree. The pants he’s wearing may strictly be for dance performances but there’s no one to stop him, so Leo had happily pulled on the shiny black leather pants. They may not be the most comfortable, recital outfits never are if you ask him, but Leo doesn’t bank on wearing them for long. In comparison his vaguely sheer white shirt, sneakers and hat seem almost boring. Piper had told him so and Leo had shoved as many bracelets on his wrists and earrings in his ears as possible in retaliation.

Jake disappears from Leo’s side when they arrive at a booth which looks like it should only seat maybe five people but is currently seating at least eight or nine and slips into the booth. With a quick sweep of the group Leo quickly follows suit and seats himself near the edge next to a guy who looks nice enough. He’s tall with a pretty smile and a blond mop of curls. He has freckles all over his face and where his shirt slipped down from leaning back, Leo can see a tattoo on his chest.

The guy moves a bit to make room and smiles when Leo makes himself comfortable,

“You looking to get some tonight?” The guy asks looking Leo up and down.

Leo shuffles a bit, basking in the attention and smiles, “Why, you down?”

The guy laughs and shakes his head, “Depends how we get along.” Then he has the audacity to wink. Leo’s smile widens. He already likes this guy.

“Then, what is your name Mr. Possible-future-hook-up?”

“I’m Will Solace, and you are?”

Leo hums and shuffles a bit closer, testing the waters, “Leo. It’s nice to meet you too _William_.”

“Ugh, God, please don’t ever call me that. I’d sooner die than have you call me that.”

Leo just grins and shrugs, “We’ll see.”

They dissolve into mindless chatter as the night goes on. It starts slow, really. At first Leo isn’t even sure they’re actually clubbing right now. There’re barely any drinks being downed, and no one is making out yet. As the night keeps going though, more people join the group and eventually Will and Leo are sent to get drinks from the bar. They get a long list of requests which Will assures Leo he remembers and then they’re on their way.

Will grabs his hand and pulls him through the masses of people toward the packed bar. He shoves past the few couples standing there and makes room for both of them right at the bar.

“Hey!” He calls out to the bartender who looks up instantly. He looks first to Will and then to Leo, stopping on the latter. He lets his eyes rake over Leo in an obvious display and then focuses back on Will.

“Yeah? What can I get you?” He asks and Will recites the long list of drinks and snacks the others had requested. The bartender nods and sets on making them instantly, seemingly forgetting about all the other patrons standing by the bar. He places two shot glasses on the counter with a wink and tells them it’s on the house before continuing his work.

Will snorts and clinks his shot with Leo’s, “Well, if you can’t get any tonight with anyone else, at least you can fuck him. He seems to be into you.”

“Yeah, right. I think I’ll take my chances on the dance floor, thank you very much.”

Will grabs the tray with the drinks and has Leo lead the way to back to the table. When they arrive Leo’s knees nearly give out and he has to grab Will’s arm to steady himself.

Nico is sitting next to Percy shaking his head at something stupid Percy probably said. But that’s not the issue. The issue is what Nico’s wearing. Leo never thought he’d think an emo aesthetic could be hot. But apparently, he’s into that now.

He’s wearing a loose black sleeveless top, (which by the way, who let him wear that?) the tightest jeans Leo has ever seen and fucking sneakers. His arms are far more toned than Leo expected and the bit of chest that Leo can see doesn’t look terrible either. Really, Nico looks anything but terrible. He looks positively delectable. When had Nico gotten this hot? He looks like he walked straight out of teenage Leo’s wet dreams and Leo’s not complaining. Not when Nico looks like that.

Will sends him a funny look but Leo’s too busy staring at Nico to notice. He’s snapped out of his thoughts when Will places the tray on the table and Nico looks up at them, his eyes meeting Leo’s. He suddenly feels very inadequate in his baggy shirt and tight leather pants. He should’ve dressed up more.

“I thought you were busy babysitting.” Leo finally gets out. He’s always prided himself on sounding more composed than he actually is. For once it’s proving useful.

Nico shrugs and leans forward to grab one of the shot glasses on the tray, “Yeah, well, I figured since you’re not here forever I might as well come hang out.”

“Oh.” Is all Leo gets out, before Will pulls him into the booth with him. In favor of embarrassing himself further he downs another shot and then another and by the fourth he stops counting and instead just leans into Will.

Leo gets progressively more drunk and by the time he finally speaks to Nico again all his inhibition is gone, and he thinks he could fight a dragon and come out alive.

“Nico!” He calls out louder than strictly necessary, but most are too drunk to notice, “Come dance with me.”

Nico eyes him, his eyes flicking to Will’s for a second before returning to Leo, “I’m not good at dancing.”

“I’ll teach you. Just come.”

“I don’t know, sunshine. I don’t like dancing much.”

Will shifts next to Leo as he seems to understand what Leo is trying to do, clearly now realizing that Nico is the one Leo wants to get laid by,

“Come on, Neeks. I’ll protect your drink while you dance. It’s just one song.”

Leo’s grin widens. He really has to thank Will for his help. He turns to Nico instead and gives him the best puppy eyes he can muster while drunk off his ass,

“Please?”

Nico sighs and finally gets up from his seat for the first time that night, “Fine. Let’s just get it over with.”

Leo grabs Nico’s hand before he can stop himself and drags him toward the dance floor. Will shoots him a wink and mouths ‘Get some’ at him before Leo and Nico disappear into the crowd.

Leo pushes Nico deep into the crowd and gets close under the pretense of dancing together without losing one another. Nico is every wet dream Leo’s ever had compiled into one and it’s almost too much. He may be a little less fuck boy than the guys Leo usually goes for but he’s so much better. He’s sweet and nice and considerate and funny and absolutely, utterly, ridiculously clueless. He watches Leo dance in his skintight leather pants meant to impress and simply laughs and does some weird dance move as a joke. Somewhere between babysitting kids and seeing Leo as a little brother Nico must have missed every single one of Leo’s intentions when he turned up all grown and legal. It’s infuriating and adorable at the same time.

“Come on, dance for real! It’s not fun like this.” Leo tells him after a while of watching Nico move awkwardly.

“How am I supposed to compete with a dancer?”

“I could teach you.” Leo offers. He puts as much charm into that one sentence as he can while reaching for another shot glass from one of the waiters walking around. He downs it easily and grins back at Nico.

“Are you even old enough to be here?” Nico asks a teasing tone in his voice.

Leo nearly chokes him. “Shut the fuck up.” He tells him. ‘ _I’m old enough to be sucking your dick right now if you would just stop thinking of me like your little brother and actually letting me show you how old I am now’_ , he thinks. They both know full well that Leo’s not supposed to be drinking, isn’t old enough yet but Leo can’t bring himself to care.

He moves closer to Nico winding his arms around his neck loosely. Nico goes tense but doesn’t move away. Le counts it as a win and keeps moving with Nico, leading him.

A new song comes on and Leo thanks God that it’s one he knows well enough to show off to. He uses all the knowledge he has and prays that for once his body rolling skills will work for him outside of class. Actually, that’s a lie. Leo knows they work, has seen guys and girls alike fall over themselves to dance with him. The question is, whether they’ll work on Nico in particular.

He moves his hips with the music, lifting his body enough to lean in and whisper in Nico’s ear, “Do you think I’m old enough now?”

“What?” Nico stares at him, a dazed look on his face. He looks like Leo ripped him from a dream.

“Do you think I’m old enough to be here now?” He emphasizes his words by rolling his body one more time and watches as Nico grows deathly pale. He disentangles himself from Leo’s arms and takes a step back, staring at Leo strangely.

“Let’s go back to the others. Your brother will kill me if I let you get too drunk.”

Nico’s gone as quickly as he was there and Leo’s left standing in the middle of the dance floor, alone, horny and angry. He watches Nico disappear and clenches his fists. Leo would have preferred if Nico had just told him he wasn’t interested, said that he only sees Leo as a brother. It would have been better than watching him string together ridiculous excuses. Even a punch in the gut would have been better. Maybe even a knife to the chest. Anything would have been better.

He feels a hand on his shoulder and he’s about to turn around and deck whoever it is when he sees Will’s gentle smile staring back at him.

“You really picked the worst boy on the planet, huh?” Will says more than asks. “Nico doesn’t do hook-ups a lot, much less relationships. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“You’ve slept with him?”

Will nods and pulls Leo closer and away from the dance floor, “He’s gonna break your heart.” He snakes an arm around Leo’s waist and makes sure to keep it there even when people push into them. It feels strangely comforting.

“He already did.”

They make their way back toward their table where half their friends are still sitting, “If it’s any consolation, I think you might have a chance. He likes them pretty, you see.” Will says gesturing to himself. Leo nearly laughs. Just nearly, though. He schools his expression though when he sees Nico look up at him, not a spec of guilt to be seen. He gets up to get closer to Leo, but Leo just moves further into Will’s arms.

“Hey Sunshine, you ready to go back? I’ll take you to Jake’s apartment.”

Leo pulls Will’s hand lower on his waist and shakes his head, “No, I’m going home with Will.”

With that he drags Will out of the club and out on the curb toward Will’s car. They stumble across the parking lot and when Will finally stops in front of the car and turns Leo around Leo’s tempted to just shut Will up by fucking him right there.

“So, you’re Nico’s Sunshine then?” Will asks, a sad note to his voice.

Leo rolls his eyes, pulling the door to the car open forcefully, “He’s talked about me?”  
“Fuck, are you kidding? He talks about his ‘Little brother from back home’ all the damn time. It’s like you’re his actual little brother.”

For the second time that night Leo has the urge to strangle Nico,

“Just fuck me.”

* * *

Leo wakes up to a massive headache, the smell of bacon and the sound of the TV playing. The first thing he sees is a high ceiling with an ugly stain on it and a Star Wars poster on the wall opposite of him. The bed kind of sucks and Leo wonders how he slept through the entire night on it. When he moves and he feels every single one of his limbs hurts he decides the bed isn’t so bad after all. That is until his phone starts going off incessantly. He tries to ignore it. He really, really does. The only issue is that it’s Shrek screaming ‘ _get out me swamp_ ’ at highest volume and Leo knows that if he ignores Piper’s call, she’ll kill him. At the same time though, she’ll kill him when he shows up at the studio regardless, so really ignoring the call sounds like a good idea.

He grabs his phone and finds that not only has Piper called him twelve times, but he is way too late to practice as well. It’s eleven in the morning, which is approximately twenty years too late. He should have been at the studio at eight but if Leo’s honest, he had probably just fallen asleep around eight.

He gets out of bed and collects his clothes, ready for the walk of shame home when it occurs to him that he has no idea where he is. Looking around the room he finds nothing except for a hoodie he recognizes. Slowly the night before comes back to him. He groans internally, remembering the drama at the club he’d put himself through. At least he got a good lay out of it. Next time he sees Nico, he’ll just ignore what happened at the club and move on with the plan.

As it turns out, the smell of bacon was not a figment of Leo’s imagination but is in fact very real and Leo thanks the Gods above that Will is a perfect guy. Leo thinks that if he weren’t so hung up on Nico, Will could be it for him. Or maybe Leo’s just caught up in the nice feeling of affection and touch for once. It could be either really. He chooses not to dwell on it.

“Will?” He calls into the room, unsure what exactly to say.

“Leo! You’re finally awake. I was just making some lunch. Do you want some?” Will points to the pan in front of him containing what might as well be heaven on earth, “Nico said he’s coming home for lunch, but you can already eat if you’d like.”

“Nico?”

Will nods and sets a plate of bacon in front of Leo, “Yeah. We live together. He stayed the night at Jake’s.”

Leo’s stomach drops and the bacon suddenly doesn’t look so good anymore. He pushes the plate away and hunches in on himself. Maybe if he makes himself small enough, he’ll be able to ignore the feeling in his chest.

“You okay?” Will asks, reaching out to put a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

Leo shrugs his hand off and grabs his jacket, “Yeah, of course. Thanks for the bacon and for last night, really.”

“It’s Nico isn’t it?”

“I have to go. I’m already late.”

Will smiles and nods, “Of course. Do you need me to drop you off somewhere?”

“No, that’s alright. I’ll take the subway.”

“Come by some time. Just to hang out, yeah? You seem fun.”

Leo nods and opens the door to leave, “I will.”

The door shuts behind him and Leo’s left standing in the cold corridor in the middle of New York. He has no idea where he is or how to get to the Studio, but he thinks he’ll figure it out. Somehow.

* * *

Piper nearly tackles him in a hug when he finally shows up at the studio. She grips him tightly and Leo’s afraid of never breathing again. He doesn’t pull away though. Instead he pulls her closer, shoves his face into the crook of her shoulder and lets himself be held. Piper only squeezes him and doesn’t let go. He doesn’t need to speak, doesn’t need to ask for her to understand. Jason gets up from where he was sitting and joins them. He wraps his arms around both of them and holds them like that. Leo feels at home.

When Piper pulls away a little, she strokes a hand over his cheek and gives him a soft look. Leo nearly melts in their embrace. Jason’s standing behind him, his arms around Leo’s middle, head resting on Leo’s shoulders. Leo’s not sure what he did to deserve them.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She whispers gently.

Leo takes a shuddering breath and shakes his head, “Not today.”

She nods and presses a kiss to his cheek before disentangling herself. She steps a tiny bit away, but not enough that she couldn’t instantly hug him again. Jason reluctantly let’s go as well, but he doesn’t go far either. He stays standing behind Leo, just in case Leo needs it.

“How about you pick the music and dance today?” Jason asks, “We can just mess around, if you want. Anything you want. We can also just go get lunch and go to an arcade.”

Piper nods, “Yeah. Or I can order pizza and we can watch a movie on Jason’s laptop.”  
Leo considers both options, but really there’s not much to think about. He came to New York to dance. Not to get his heart broken, not to get wasted but to dance and fuck if he’s not going to do it. He stands a bit straighter, a desperate attempt at regaining his composure and smiles a tiny bit,

“Pizza and then we practice until we get it perfect.”

Piper grins and nods eagerly, already leaving to get her phone and call a nearby pizza delivery place. When she steps out of the room to place their orders, Jason moves a bit closer to Leo, grabbing his hand in his.

“Are you sure?” He asks, “Pipes and I really don’t mind if you just want to go to an arcade and play video games or something.”

Leo shakes his head, “I need this. I’ll never get over him if I keep letting him into my head. Dancing is what I came here for and I’m not going to let my stupid crush get in the way.”

“Just promise to sit down if you don’t feel good. I don’t want you to have a breakdown or anything.”

“I promise.” Leo holds out his pinky for Jason to lock his with. Jason does so, smiling gently. It’s a smile that’s entirely reserved for Leo and Piper. One that Leo has only ever seen directed at family. And yeah, he supposes that’s what he is to Jason. Family away from home.

“Besides, I can’t leave you guys to practice without me. You’d get nothing done.”

Jason groans and shoves his hands over his face, “Tell me about it. Piper spent the first one and a half hours here fortnite dancing and trying to get me to learn tik tok dances. Can you imagine, me? Tik Tok dancing?”

“Now I really wanna see that.”

Jason glares at him and kicks his foot, “It was terrible. By the time you showed up I was seconds away from murdering her.”

“Bold of you to assume it’ll get better now that I’m here.”

“You’re the absolute worst, you know that right?”

“I try.”

Piper returns twenty minutes later with three pizza boxes in hand, having waited downstairs in the entrance hall for the pizza delivery guy. She sets the boxes down on the tiny coffee table in the corner of the studio where two couches are set up. She grabs each of their water bottles and sets them next to the pizza. It doesn’t look fancy and to be honest the pizza doesn’t look too great either, but Leo thinks it’s perfect.   
As usual when Leo has a bad day, he ends up squished between them on the couch. Piper grabs him around the waist and forcefully hauls him to the sofa, sitting him down basically on her lap. When he tries to get up and apologize for landing on her she rolls her eyes and grips him tighter keeping him where he is. Jason joins them quickly letting himself fall next to Piper. He lays his head on Leo’s shoulder and hands him a piece of pizza every time he asks for one. Leo feels like he might have died and gone to heaven. Or maybe his friends are just that great.

* * *

Dancing feels freeing. Every time he forgets but then when the music starts, and he begins moving for the first time that day he’s reminded of why he loves it in the first place. At first, dancing had been hard. He hadn’t been one of those lucky ones for whom dance was as easy as breathing, like Piper. He’d struggled more with the movements and choreographies than he’d like to admit. It simply been too hard to concentrate of everything he was meant to do at once. The constant string of instructions ringing through his head.

> "Shoulders back, long neck, stomach in, head tilted, elbows up, arms out, legs straight, higher, higher, highest, pull up, point toes, don’t roll, don’t sickle, ribs in, butt tucked, turn out, relevé, thumbs in, energy, square hips, extend, reach, breathe and don’t forget to smile."

It’d all been too much at first. And with that came remembering the choreography. It was all those instructions while also moving and dancing. There’d been more than a few times where Leo had gone home crying. He’d wanted to be like Piper and Jason. To be perfect and good at it. The ballet classes had been the worst that way. There’d been so many rules and instructions to follow he’d been overwhelmed. But it’d made a good stepping stone for the others. Being able to follow along with ballet and all its crazy regulations had made it easier to follow the freer dance types. It’d forced him to perfect his technique and by the time he was old enough to compete properly, he’d been beating other dancers left and right. 

Still, the choreography never came easy to him. Not until one Saturday afternoon with Nico. Leo had been eleven. He’d been in his room, practicing the warmups for ballet class in his room. No matter how much he’d tried he couldn’t remember the ronde de jambe steps. He’d tried and tried until his legs hurt and he couldn’t hold his arms up anymore. He’d had the music playing on his phone. It echoed through the room stiffly as Leo tried to follow along. Piper and Jason had already perfected it. They’d both offered to help but Leo was too proud to accept. He’d been convinced that he could do it by himself. Though, the more he’d tried to the more he’d begun thinking that maybe dance wasn’t his thing after all. Maybe he should’ve just done something for the science fair instead.

_His door had opened and when Leo had looked up Nico was standing there. He’d had his typical sweater and ripped jeans on, his skateboard in hand._

_“What are you doing here” Leo shrieked. He felt inadequate in his ugly white tights and black shirt. Quickly he stepped away from the barre Nyssa had made him for his 9 th birthday. _

_Nico just shrugged, “Jake’s not home yet so I figured why not see what you’re up to.”_

_“I’m not doing anything.” Leo lied. He didn’t want to admit that he’d been dancing. There was no way Nico would think he was cool. He may not voice his embarrassment, but Leo couldn’t imagine that Nico would think it terribly cool that Leo danced. So, he pulled his shirt down further and shuffled over to the bed._

_“Didn’t look like nothing to me.” Nico said, a tiny smile on his face, “Were you dancing?”  
_

_“No.”_

_“It looked nice. You look all fancy like a real ballerina.” Nico said. He always saw right through Leo. Leo hated it._

_Leo frowned and looked away, his face growing hot, “Whatever. I can’t get it right anyway.”_

_“Why not?”_

_“Too many steps. I can’t concentrate on them all.”  
_

_Nico seemed to consider this and then sat on the bed with Leo, “Can I see?”  
_

_“It’s embarrassing.”  
_

_“I’m sure you’re doing well.”_

_Leo sighed and gingerly walked back to his barre. He breathed deeply and straightened his back, standing in first position and lifted his arms, opening them and letting his right-hand rest on the barre. He nodded for Nico to press play on the music. It went well until the first position change happened. Leo frowned at his feet, momentarily forgetting to school his expression and attempted to remember which way to move his arm to go with the second position. It took him a beat too long and when he finally figured it out, he was behind on the music and he forced himself to move quicker than he should, only throwing him off further. His frown deepened and when the music went quiet his hand was gripping the barre hard enough for his knuckles to turn wide._

_Nico stared at him with a gentle smile and clapped, “That didn’t look too bad to me.”_

_“That’s because you don’t know anything about dance.” Leo retorted. He didn’t mean to be rude, but he couldn’t help himself. Not now. Not when he was meant to memorize this months ago._

_“You seemed to be doing so well until that one part. What happened?”  
_

_“Can’t remember where to put my arms and my feet. It’s too much to think about at once.”_

_Nico hummed and let himself fall backward on the bed fully, “So don’t think.”  
_

_“What?”  
_

_“You say there’s too much to think about, so don’t think at all. Let your body simply do what feels right. That’s what I do when I play soccer with Jake.”  
_

_“I can’t just do that. There’s rules and stuff.”_

_Nico shrugged and waved his hand around, “Trust your body that it remembers what to do.”_

_“You’re useless.”_

_Nico simply laughed and agreed. He let Leo keep practicing until Jake came home and by the end Leo still couldn’t do the ronde de jambe but at least now he could say he tried_.

From then on, the words had been stuck in Leo’s head. ‘ _Don’t think at all. Let your body simply do what feels right. Trust your body that it remembers what to do_ ’.  
It’d been hard at first to remember not to think. To trust himself enough to simply leave his head empty and let his body take over. It’d been terrifying. Leo hadn’t even been able to understand how not to think. As long as he could remember there’d always been some form of noise in his head. But he’d learned to ignore it. At least when he was dancing. After a while, Leo had been able to completely empty his head while dancing and he’d never felt better. He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget those words. They’re burned deeply into his mind. In a way, they’re what made Leo a dancer. He doesn’t think he would’ve gone far if he’d kept overthinking every single move.

Piper starts the first song for warmups and Leo stands with her and Jason at the barre and follows the music easily. They go through all exercises and Leo doesn’t mess up the ronde de jambe at all. He finishes it perfectly and turns around to do the other side as well.   
They spend the rest of the day practicing. As promised, they leave the studio only when perfecting the choreography. They leave at three thirty in the morning the next day. Leo feels satisfied for once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes the dancing and ballet parts are based entirely on my own experience of dancing for twelve years so they may not apply to everyone  
> Additionally I hope I conveyed the feeling and stuff of dance and all that jazz understandably even to people who've never danced before I hope it wasn't too confusing toward the end
> 
> Also, I may or may not have contracted COVID so either the updates will be very frequent because I'm in quarantine now or they're be super slow because I feel kinda exhausted and sick  
> We'll see. I hope I can update often enough and finish this soon.
> 
> Anyway, thanks so much for reading it means a lot and I love everyone who left a comment or kudos or bookmarks you guys are the real MVPs <33


	4. Dance the night away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back.  
> please ignore all spelling mistakes my dyslexic ass couldn't be bothered to check

There are a lot of things Nico wants to say to Leo. He wants to tell him how proud he is, seeing him grow up to do what he loves. He wants to tell him that he’s amazing at what he does. That he can win the competition easily. Maybe even that they should hang out more. Most importantly, though, he wants to tell him that he missed him too. Nico’s not an idiot. He knows that Leo missed him. He’s seen every single message Leo sent him after he left and he’s not dumb enough to think that Leo is this flirty with every single one of his childhood friends. He knows how Leo is, sees him with his friends and with Jake and he knows what he’s been getting up to these past few years. Jake would complain about his stupid little brother who got into all sorts of trouble all the time. Nico secretly loves the stories. Loves knowing what Leo gets up to when Nico isn’t there to see for himself.

And the thing is at first after he left, it had been fine. He’d hung out with Jake after class, he’d met Will and they’d given dating a try but ultimately had decided to stay friends, and Nico had met all his other amazing friends. His professors were nice, and he got a cool job house and babysitting. For a while, life couldn’t have been better. But then Leo grew up and Nico didn’t know how to deal with it.

He’d had five whole years of freedom, completely safe from everything. And then Leo had followed him on Instagram. At first, it hadn’t been a problem. Leo had been barely 17 and Nico found himself following back before he could think much of it. They’d been friends. He’d thought it would be fine. But Leo grew up. And grow up he did. Gone had been the sweet innocent boy who cried over broken pots, replaced by a boy who played with demons and knew exactly what he did to the people around him. With his pretty face and a sharp smile that turned devilish on stage, and his mean way of moving his body that made Nico want to reach out through his phone and hold Leo, keep him to himself. Leo knows exactly what effect he has on everyone around him and Nico isn’t stupid enough to think that the countless videos of Leo practicing shirtless or sweaty are for no reason. He knows that Leo likes showing off, likes when people look at him and admire him and he likes when people fall over themselves to worship the ground he walks on. And fuck Nico can’t fault him for that. Deep, deep down he knows he wants to do the same. Wants to fall to his knees and pray to Leo like a believer in his God. 

Nico hadn’t let himself ever like any of the pictures, too afraid that it would make him feel something he shouldn’t be feeling. Leo is his best friend’s little brother, practically Nico’s adoptive brother by proxy, nothing more. But over the years it got harder to ignore. It got harder to ignore all the texts Leo sent and the scandalous videos he posted. Nico had wanted to congratulate him when he’d won his first proper dance competition and he’d wanted to come to Leo’s graduation, but he hadn’t allowed himself to get too close. Getting too close meant letting Leo in and maybe possibly letting himself feel something for Leo and that’s not acceptable.

Nico is fine with admiring Leo from afar, with loving him an arm’s length away, and with never letting Leo know. Leo would grow out of his stupid crush on Nico and Nico, well Nico would find a way to get over whatever had been growing in him since Leo turned 18 almost two years ago. 

The only issue with that plan is that Leo doesn’t know about it and that means he won’t stay single. Nico knows that, in his head somewhere deep beneath all the layers of adoration. He’s seen the photos of Leo being carried by one guy or another, the Instagram stories of Leo drunkenly leaning on a guy Nico’s never seen before and making out with a girl Nico thinks went to dance class with Leo. He’s seen them and grown accustomed. They’re far away and always seem to be short-lived anyway. After a few weeks, Leo seems to grow bored and soon enough someone else will show up on his infinitely growing account.

But now Leo’s here and the Nico knows the people around him. He knows Will and he knows Will would take good care of Leo. The sight of Leo leaning into Will, announcing that he’d be going home with him, intention so clear Nico could’ve known without Leo saying it, made something ugly twist in his stomach. He’d wanted nothing more than to just reach out and tug Leo to sit in his lap, come back home with him and have Leo scream his name late at night. Leo would be going to the same apartment, would probably still have sat in Will’s car since he drove them there, but he would’ve followed Nico to his room, would have taken his clothes off for Nico, and wouldn’t even have spared a single glance in Will’s direction. That’s how it should’ve been. How Nico wanted it to be. But that’s not how it went. 

Leo went with Will and not Nico and that’s Nico’s fault and he knows. He could’ve had all that. He could’ve had Leo begging for him and smiling at him with that pretty, gummy smile but instead, he went and fucked it up. If he hadn’t pushed Leo away, if he’d let himself have it just once, he could’ve had it all. Instead, he made stupid excuses and fell into his own sense of false safety away from feelings he doesn’t want to examine further than he has to.

“If you brood like that while we’re at the show I won’t drive you to class for a week,” Will tells him making Nico fall back into reality. He blinks a few times, tries to remind himself where’s going and why he’s here until his eyes fall on the row of cars in front of him, a big fancy building on his right side. Right. It’s Leo’s first competition today. Jake had bought everyone tickets so they could watch live. It’d been one of the few times where Nico had really seen Jake overflowing with pride for his little brother. 

“I’m not brooding.”

“Yes, you are.” Will tells him, a mean smile on his face, “You look like an angry chipmunk like that. Loosen up a bit, Leo won’t want to see you like that.”

“He won’t want to see me at all.” Nico argues, “I shouldn’t be here.”

“That’s a load of bullshit and you know it. He didn’t ask Jake to keep you away and he’ll be happy to see you there. Why can’t you just let yourself enjoy things?”

Nico rolls his eyes and doesn’t answer. He pushes his car door open and steps out on the sidewalk, greeted by the late evening sun. The taping will start in half an hour and Nico knows they’re running late, and he knows it’d been his fault, but he still doesn’t want to go in. Too afraid of what he’ll see. Too afraid that he’ll see not the boy he so desperately wants to convince himself he knows, but the man he’s turned into in the past few years. 

“C’mon,” Will says, pulling Nico into the studio by his arm, “We’re kinda late already.”

Nico lets himself be dragged into the large building and tries to suppress the way his stomach fills with dread at the thought of seeing Leo. They haven’t spoken since the club. It’s been almost a week and Nico spent all of it unfocused and wavering in his head, trying to figure out how to fix the things he messed up. He’d come up empty as usual.

Will’s hand on his arm doesn’t leave until they’re sitting in the row, right behind the judges, staring at an empty stage in a dark room. Nico sits between Jake and Will. Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank are sitting behind them. Nico doesn’t want to know how much it cost Jake to get them seats this close to the stage. He knows that both of their families are well off, but Nico would still rather not think about the amount of money Jake blew on this. Not that Nico wouldn’t have done the same if he’d had the chance.

As he watches everyone get seated and the cameras set up it occurs to him that up here, right in the front, he might be filmed. The competition will be broadcast, and Nico knows that just like any talent or a variety show, the audience gets filmed. He tries not to think about the fact that he’ll have to school his expression more than he planned to. No way can he let the whole world see that he’s half in love with one of the contestants.

A staff member is explaining to them that when the sign above the stage lights up, they’re supposed to clap and when the sign next to it lights up, they’re supposed to laugh. Nico rolls his eyes but promises himself to play along. Even just for Leo.

Next to him, Jake is practically shaking in his seat. Nico can’t blame him. His little brother is competing in one of the biggest dance competitions in the country. If only Nico could let himself be as excited. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to fake his laughter at the judges’ bad attempts at jokes.

“How long is this thing?” Nico asks Will quietly.

Will looks up from his phone and shrugs, “They started letting people in at around three and it’s supposed to start at five, so like half an hour until start,” He tells him, “After that, I think it’s supposed to run until 7ish. Or something. I don’t know. Ask Jake.”

Nico huffs and leans back further in his seat. He’s glad they showed up late, he doesn’t think he would’ve survived sitting in the lobby for an hour before being let into the studio to wait another hour and a half. His stomach feels like an empty hole and Nico isn’t sure what to do to make it stop. He needs to focus on this. Now is not the time to wallow in whatever self-pity he has left between piles of shame and embarrassment.

After what feels like forever, there’s a loud commotion and the lights go out. The sign on the left side of the room lights up and Nico can make out neon letters reading ‘Studio 5 now on air’, before his attention is directed back to the stage. He’s never been to a talent show before and nothing could’ve prepared him for this.

Nico doesn’t think of himself as someone who’s very much into entertainment and celebrities. Not at all in fact. Neither is Jake or any other of his friends, so Nico never really bothered to learn much about the entertainment world. So, when the lights go out and the room goes quiet Nico doesn’t know what to expect.

Will shifts next to him and Nico thinks that maybe sitting up a bit would be smart, lest the camera shifts, and he finds himself in its field of view. He huffs and leans forward a bit, just a bit excited to see what will happen. Sue him for being intrigued by the ominous music playing in the background. 

Nico nearly jumps out of his skin when the stage lights up without warning and airhorns echo across the room. A group of dancers step on stage, and Nico doesn’t have the time to understand what’s happening before they start dancing to the loud music and the screen above them lights up, showing a collage of four people with their names underneath. Nico assumes it must be the first group of dancers. From what Leo has told him, Nico knows that it’s dance groups competing against one another in a round system, but that’s about it. He’d felt too silly asking Jake about it and he hadn’t been able to bring himself to google the show. 

The group is done as fast as they appeared, and another group of dancers steps on stage next to them. The camera swerves to them and Nico has to crane his neck to see the dancers properly. The stage is big, of course, but it’s also kind of circular, and from where Nico is sitting it’s hard to see the people on the side, especially with the dim light.  
Will seems excited at the show. Nico isn’t too sure yet what to think. He’s not interested in dance and so far, although the two groups were amazing in their intro, he’s not very convinced that this is one of the biggest dance competitions in the country. Maybe they’ll be better when they perform later. 

Five more groups show up before Nico sees Leo for the first time. When he does Nico nearly forgets all his doubts about the other night. They come on stage the same way the other groups did, emerging from the fog and dancing impressively in direction of the camera, entirely focused on the performance not even glance directed at the audience. They dance for all of ten seconds, maybe less, but Nico feels like it goes on forever. Leo is in the center the entire time and Nico doubts he’d shine any less if he were in Piper’s or Jason’s place. Nico can’t look away, even when the next group steps on stage and Leo’s group moves to the back to stand at the side and wait. He’s entirely focused on Leo, panting, and breathing heavily, clearly more than a bit nervous. He looks like he might pass out. Piper has her hand on his shoulder and Jason squeezes his hand once before they turn to watch the other groups perform.  
The music changes from one upbeat, heavy sounding song to another with every group but Nico doesn’t care. He’s too stuck on Leo.  
Eventually, when every group seems to have presented themselves, Nico can count that there are 10 groups. They all seem amazing and Nico has a hard time seeing how any of them could be kicked off.

The lights turn off and the room is filled with music that, in Nico’s opinion sounds far too epic for a simple dance competition or reality show. Everyone watches, quiet as the screen above the stage comes to life and a video begins to play. For a moment Nico thinks it might be a commercial break, but that would be stupid this early into the show, and then he realizes that it’s one of those dramatic intros they always have in these types of shows. Somehow, it’d never occurred to Nico that that might be part of this show as well. He watches as clips of people practicing in dance studios play one after the other, with dramatic voice-overs from the performers and a dark filter over them to make it look like there’s more at stake than there realistically is. Somewhere in the middle of the video, Nico hears Leo’s voice, proclaiming “I’m getting first place no matter what,” confidently, in a way, Nico has never heard Leo before. He doesn’t know whether it’s just bravado or whether Leo is genuinely that passionate about winning. He thinks it might be the latter. 

The show’s logo flashes across the screen and Nico can barely read the text before it’s gone again.

The intro is shorter than Nico expected and a whole lot more dramatic than Nico would deem necessary. When the lights go on again, the contestants are sitting on a set of stairs on either side of the stage that hadn’t been there before. Nico watches as a man and a woman step on stage, both clearly not dressed to dance. The man is wearing a suit and tie with shiny leather shoes and a yellow, partially unbuttoned shirt and the woman is dressed in a blue pantsuit that probably costs more than Nico’s tuition and rent combined, and high heels. They don’t look terribly formal like Nico would’ve expected. Maybe a bit like they could be from the hunger games. They’re both holding note cards, equipped with earpieces and microphones. Nico figures they must be the MCs of the show.

Everyone claps and cheers as they make their way across the stage. He remembers to join in as well, clapping halfheartedly. Next to him, Jake and Will seem to be having the time of their lives, watching it all unfold. He’s sure that behind him the others are having fun as well. They’d been excited when Jake had given them the tickets.

“Thank you, thank you,” The man tells the crowd once they quiet down a bit, “Good evening, and welcome, to the 47th New York City Dance Festival, where America’s greatest dancers compete for a whopping $500,000, an exclusive music video, and the chance to be the next big thing in the dance world.” He announces and Nico tries not to think about the massive amount  
promised to the winner, “I’m America’s King of Dance, Apollo,”

The crowd goes wild and Nico has the urge to squeeze his hands over his ears at all the screeching and excitement. Yes, the guy is good looking and definitely a lot more handsome than Nico would’ve expected but he doesn’t rival Leo and Nico really doesn’t think all the screaming is necessary.

The woman rolls her eyes at Apollo’s antics and shakes her head, stepping forward to introduce herself as well, “And I’m Dancer of Dancers, Artemis. Together, we present to you the beginning of a long journey in pursuit of the one big dream.”

Nico really, really, tries not to scoff at the dumb wording but he can’t help himself and so he thinks the slap to his thigh that Will delivers to him is uncalled for. How is he supposed to take them seriously, when they act so dramatically over a talent show of all things?

He misses a few of the boring and vaguely cringy jokes and dance moves the two MCs, throw at each other that cause the audience and the performers to laugh awkwardly, too busy trying to find Leo in between all the excited looking dancers sitting on stage. He doesn’t succeed before the MCs start talking to the audience again.

“A lot is at stake in this,” Artemis starts, only barely glancing at her cards before looking back at the audience. Nico doesn’t like the way her eyes seem to be judging everyone sitting there.  
“The whole world’s eyes are on the dancers who perform here, watching, waiting to see who will take the crown from our generation.” She continues.

Apollo nods and steps forward a bit, “The dancers will perform every week, with the given concept. The ranking is assigned according to the votes each group receives after their performance. Every week, the group with the least amounts of votes will be eliminated, until only two remain for the grand finale.”

“It seems easy now,” Artemis chimes in, “But not so fast. The judges each hold 100 points which they can give once, ensuring that one team is safe from certain failure and continues into the next round.”

Apollo smiles charmingly at the audience and adds, “And because we wouldn’t want it to be too easy, the group with the second least points will receive a small punishment.”  
Nico’s stomach lurches at the thought. He doesn’t want to know what a small punishment is supposed to be, and if he’s honest with himself he’s not sure he wants to find out either. It doesn’t sound good, judging from the MCs mean smiles and the clear uneasiness and nervousness on the dancer’s faces.

“Now, enough with the rules and concepts,” Apollo exclaims, “It’s time to meet the stars! They may seem cool and relaxed now, but we’ll see how they fare once the game begins.”  
The camera swerves to survey the groups once more, closer to their faces this time and Nico sees Leo sitting on the top of the stairs, at the far back, between Piper and Jason, on the left side of the stage. He doesn’t look as nervous anymore like he’s settled into the situation more. Nico can only hope it stays that way. No matter what happens, he really doesn’t want Leo’s group to be voted off or to face whatever sick punishment the show has thought of.

They introduce the first few groups quickly, a few quips here and there a whole lot of laughter, and ‘ooh's on the audience’s side. 

“Now, many of you may already know him, he’s no stranger to our show. Really, an introduction isn’t even necessary,” Apollo announces, gesturing to a blond boy sitting opposite of Leo’s group, at the bottom of the stairs, “He’s a true NYCDF veteran and ex-winner of NYCDF! Please welcome, Luke Castellan!”

The crowd goes absolutely wild. Nico’s pretty sure he hears a few girls scream and a few more wolf whistles. Nico leans closer to get a better look but stops when he sees the camera moving to survey the audience. He quickly leans back in his seat and does his best to look half-way excited.

Luke has a cocky smile on his face and he’s looking at the audience in a way that makes Nico think he knows exactly what kind of effect he has on the girls in the audience. He’s wearing a white and red tank top, jeans, and sneakers. He has about a billion bracelets and ear piercings. Nico can’t pretend that he’s not hot. Still, something about him is unsettling.

“Luke,” Artemis says, a mean lilt in her voice, “When we were interviewing the contestants, we asked everyone who they thought the easiest win would be, you said group 7, Jason, Leo, and Piper.”

The crowd goes so quiet Nic swears he can hear his own heartbeat. Jake looks ready to murder someone, probably Luke.

“No, no, you’re making me sound worse than I am!” Luke amends, “Everyone here is amazing and when you asked, I really didn’t know who to pick. Thalia, Silena, and Clarisse are sure bets when it comes to winning, and Reyna is an absolute unit anyway. I didn’t know who else to say, so I figured the three of them might have some trouble since they’re rookies, you know.”

Apollo levels him with a look and smirks, “Sure, but you can’t tell me you don’t genuinely think you’re better than them?”

Luke shrugs and waves his hand, an easy smile on his face, “We’ll see about that when we get started.”

Artemis nods and turns to the other side, “Well then, let’s see what the rookies have to say about that.” The camera focuses on Piper, Jason, and Leo, “It’s their first time here and their first time at a talent show like this at all. In fact, they’ve only done regional competitions before.” The crowd ‘aww’s and Artemis nods, gesturing widely at the stairs, “Give it up for Jason, Leo, and Piper!”

Everyone claps, not as much as for Luke or any of the other senior contestants but Nico thinks given that it’s their first time on TV it’s pretty good. The screen shows their faces and Nico is nearly blinded by Leo’s big gummy smile. It’s so unlike the smile Nico is used to seeing. He wonders what show Leo is trying to pull right now, with the big smile, cute dimples, and sweet glint in his eyes. It’s nothing like the real Leo.

“Thank you so much for having us, we’ll be sure to do our best,” Jason tells the camera, and Leo and Piper nod along excitedly.

Apollo steps a bit closer to them, “Why don’t you tell us what you think about Luke’s evaluation? You think he’s right?”

The three of them look between one another before Leo sits up a bit straighter and answers. Piper’s and Jason’s faces grow a bit panicky when Leo leans forward, the sweet glint in his eyes gone, but Nico can’t help but smile with Leo.

“I’ll say he’s definitely right in what he said about the others, but I think we’re all entitled to making one or two mistakes in life,” Leo tells everyone, “And I’d say he is underestimating us just because we’re rookies.”

Nico really, really shouldn’t find the mean smile so hot, but he can’t help himself. Especially not when everyone goes wild and Luke looks like someone decked him. Next to Nico, Jake is losing his shit, cheering loudly with the rest of the audience. Will has a pleased smile on his face that looks a lot like it’s saying, ‘I told you so’. Nico isn’t sure whether he likes the fact that Will seems privy to Leo’s expressions more than Nico is.

“Those are some mighty words from a rookie,” Artemis tells Leo.

Leo shrugs, “I have full confidence in myself and my team. I’m here to win and nothing else.”

Apollo laughs, clearly pleased with Leo’s confidence and they move on to the next contestants. 

Just as they’re about to announce the first concept, they stop for a commercial break. Nico watches as the lights go on and organized chaos breaks loose. The contestants are sprint off stage off to god knows where while stage techs come on to quickly dispose of the stairs and get everything ready for the first performance. The commercial break is over after all of 4 minutes and it feels like even less when the lights go down again Artemis and Apollo step on stage, notecards, and microphones in hand. 

“We have a few rookie groups this year, so we thought why not start out with something a little sweet, like ice cream on a hot summer day?” Apollo says, “You’ve seen their introductions, their energy, their power, but can they perform when the topic at hand is adolescent? Who will prevail, the seniors with experience beyond their years, or the rookies, ready to match the free, young spirit?”

Artemis nods and steps forward a little, “This week’s concept is ‘Crush’. The groups are free to interpret it as they please, so long as it has to do with the concept. Each of them has free choice in music and choreography as well as backup dancers if they so choose to use them.”

Nico grips the armrest tighter. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to deal with Leo acting all sweet and cute on stage. Or maybe not. Nico’s not sure what crush is meant to be. It could be anything really. He also really doesn’t want to think about Leo possibly pretending to be into someone else on stage while dancing.

“The order in which they appear has been determined in a little game beforehand.”

Apollo says and they step off to the side. All lights go off again and the screen turns on, showing the show’s logo before a video starts playing.

Nico’s eyes adjust to the bright light of a dance studio, where all contestants are all sitting along the walls. Nico doesn’t have the energy to count all of them before the person standing next to a big TV with 10 numbers displayed on it speaks.

“Alright everyone,” The woman announces, “Reyna will hand out an envelope to each group. You open it as soon as you get it.”  
One of the contestants, Reyna it seems, nods and gets up from her seat on the floor, and moves over to a counter by the mirror. There’s a stack of envelopes in a box and she begins distributing them among the groups. They’re all wearing a hoodie or t-shirt with the show’s logo on it and the only thing distinguishing each group is a differently colored bracelet. Piper, Jason, and Leo’s are orange. 

They all look moderately excited, some more than others. Leo seems to practically be buzzing with excitement. A few others seem excited enough as well. The boy next to Leo keeps nudging him whispering to him. Nico doesn’t know who he is.  
Once Reyna finishes handing all letters out, she sits back down in her place, an envelope in her hand as well. Everyone opens them and nods. Nico’s not sure what’s going on.

“Who has 'one' on their paper?” the woman from earlier asks. 

Somewhere in the row of contestants, a hand shoots up and the woman nods, writing ‘Thalia, Silena, Clarisse’ on an iPad, the writing appears on the screen next to the number one displayed at the very top of the list.

They continue that way until all numbers have a group written next to them. Nico thinks that’s the end of it and waits for the stage lights to turn on and the first group to perform, but the woman in the video speaks again.

“Now,” She says loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention from where they were talking amongst themselves excitedly, “If you, for some reason, aren’t happy with your place on the list, you may play against another team to get their slot.” She smiles gently at everyone, “Would anyone like to switch?”

Instantly three hands shoot up. Nico scans the room to see who it is and finds that Jason is raising his hand, along with the boy who was sitting next to Leo, and a blond girl.

“Alright, group 7, who would you like to switch with?”

Jason whispers something to Piper and Leo who nods, and then answers, “Group 1.”

“Luke, Alabaster, do you agree to play?” The two nod, “Pick one from each group to compete and the rest will choose a game from the box behind Alabaster.”

Jason gets picked in his group and when they see him, group 1 picks Luke. Everyone hollers and cheers when the two get up, stepping into the front of the semi-circle. Alabaster grabs the box and reaches into it, pulling out a strip of paper. He reads it aloud to the group.

“Arm wrestling.”

Luke laughs and the two lie down on the ground, hand in hand. The woman counts down and then they start. Luke looks far too pleased and cocky for Nico’s taste. Jason on the other hand just looks like he’s here to have fun, not to win against a boy who looks both a bit taller and buffer than him. Though in the end, both are comparatively tall and strong. Nico’s glad it wasn’t Leo who got picked. He’s sure Leo would have failed miserably at arm wrestling against Luke.

The game is over relatively quickly, with Jason winning when someone makes a bad joke that ends up distracting Luke, giving Jason the chance to shove Luke’s hand to the ground.  
The audience cheers and boos when the video shows Luke rolling his eyes and shaking his head good-naturedly, muttering a nonchalant ‘whatever, they can go first,’, sitting back down next to Alabaster who pats him on the shoulder. Leo and Piper greet Jason with open arms and excited cheering. The woman with the iPad moves Piper, Jason, and Leo from fifth to first. 

After Leo’s group, the boy who was sitting next to Leo and his group ask to switch. The boy, Magnus the pop-up at the bottom of the video says, asks to switch with the group that would’ve gone second. Magnus’ group loses and they’re stuck at the very bottom of the list. Lastly, the blond girl, Sadie, competes against Reyna’s group for the third spot. They win and Reyna’s group gets pushed to fourth. Nico doesn’t really see how the order in which they perform makes a big difference, but he doesn’t dwell on it. Not when he knows Leo’s group will go first. 

There’s more laughter and a few more people make bad jokes before the video cuts off and the room goes completely dark. 

Then the screen lights up ‘Group 1’ written in bold letters glowing in the middle. Nico’s breath catches in his throat when the music starts playing. It’s slow and a lot quieter than Nico would have expected. He thought it’d be all upbeat and flouncy dancing. Instead, Leo and Piper step on stage, seemingly slow dancing to the music, heart eyes and sweet smiles directed at one another like the rest of the world isn’t there. The music picks up and Jason joins, an angry look on his face as he moves around them seemingly yelling at them, dancing in a way that made it clear that whatever he was feeling wasn’t at all pretty and nice. That’s the thing. Nico didn’t there’d be a story. He thought he’d watch a cute little dancer performance and go home at the end of the day. Instead, he gets a story that hits far too close to home. 

No matter how Jason moves, Piper and Jason don’t seem to notice them. They twirl in their own little world, dancing completely coordinated, always side by side, completely unaware of Jason trying to join, and take Leo’s place. The dance feels helpless in a way Nico hadn’t expected. The way Jason looks at Piper and Leo reminds Nico too much of how he himself looks at the two. He has to grip the armrest tighter to stop himself from showing any reaction, other than awe at the way they move together like a well-oiled machine. 

The audience seems completely enraptured by the performance. By the way, Leo holds Piper and seems to be completely and utterly in love with her while Jason looks on helplessly, trying to take Leo’s place. It’s not what Nico expected. It’s not what anyone probably expected. But it lends itself to the topic. Nico knew that they wouldn’t do a cutesy concept, Piper would have probably killed someone before doing that, and he knows that Leo and Jason aren’t very big on the cute either, no matter how adorable Leo looks sometimes. So really, Nico should have known that they’d produced something else. Something sadder, maybe even a little melancholic. And then suddenly it makes sense why they wanted to go first. Nico has no doubt that the others probably fell more into the cutesy direction, expecting the judges to want that. Leo, Jason, and Piper are working with the shock factor. They go first with a concept only they have, that they know will stick in the judges' and audience's head for the remainder of the taping. It’s genius. 

As predicted, the other groups go more for the cute, sweet, summer love vibe. It’s nice, they all dance well, and Nico can’t say that he doesn’t enjoy the performances, but they’re not the same as Leo’s. Leo’s hit home in a way nothing else could. Like he’d read Nico’s mind and choreographed exactly how Nico feels about Leo. It’s a little frightening.  
Will bounces along to the performances, in his seat, and sings along to songs he knows quietly. Jake doesn’t seem too happy with the sweet performances either, his face a little bored while they perform. Nico also thinks he’s biased because he resolutely refuses to smile at any of the groups, except Leo’s. Behind him, Nico can hear Percy vibing to the song while Annabeth tells him to be quiet. 

Still, the audience doesn’t go off the way it did with Leo, Jason, and Piper’s performance. They cheer and clap but it’s not the same as their heartbreaking performance at the beginning. Judging from the groups who’ve already performed and are now sitting at the sidelines directly in front of Nico, they know too. None of them look very happy with themselves, especially not Luke and his partner. He doesn’t look angry, nor does he look happy. He’s looking at Leo like he wants to eat him alive, and Nico doesn’t like it one bit. The way Luke’s eyes keep moving up and down Leo, smiling that mischievous, no-good smile when Leo catches his eye and waves. 

Luke and Alabaster hadn’t been very cute with their concept, it had been a bit more bro level. They’d had a female backup dancer be on stage while they moved around her, like high-school boys trying to get a girl’s attention. It’d been amusing. But it didn’t even come close to Leo’s performance.

The rest of the show passes in a hurry of performances, cheering, fake laughter, and cringy jokes tossed between Apollo and Artemis. When it comes to voting, Nico is on the edge of his seat, watching the judges sitting in front of him with every ounce of attention he can spare. The groups are all lined up on stage, standing in one long row. Everyone waits as the judges talk to each other quietly. 

For the untrained eye, Leo looks at peace. Hands in his pockets, leaning back slightly, chin high, and a smile he knows charms, everyone, on his face. His hair is messy and he’s still wearing the outfit from the performance, now more disheveled though. The makeup around his eyes is a bit smudged. He looks like a hot mess and Nico thinks he’s gone to heaven when Leo’s eyes flick across the audience and they land on Nico and Leo’s smile widens. His heart beats out of his chest and Nico’s afraid the entire studio will hear with how quiet it is as they wait.  
But as someone who’s known Leo since he was a kid, he can tell Leo is nervous. His shoulders are drawn together in fake bravado and his feat are planted so firmly into the ground that Nico is afraid the stage will crack. 

Finally, the judges nod and turn back to the performers. Nico sees Jason’s breath hitch when they announce that they’ve made a decision.  
The audience score displays on the screen up ahead and Nico feels his heart give when he sees that Leo’s group isn’t last. They’re second, right underneath Luke and Alabaster. Of course, Luke is number one.

None of the judges use their 100 extra points yet, and when they finally announce who will go home Nico can’t help but sigh in relief that it’s some other group whose name he hadn’t bothered to learn. Everyone cheers for Luke’s group as the winner. The lights go nuts and there’s confetti falling from the stage, a bouquet of flowers being thrust into Luke’s hand. Each performer on stage moves a bit to congratulate Luke and at least give a smile if not a handshake. They all clap as Luke and Alabaster thank the audience.  
The performers breathe easy on stage and the group that gets sent home nods solemnly, taking the microphone from Apollo and speaking a few short words of thanks to the audience and the judges.

Once the lights go on in the studio again and the neon sign goes off, Nico gets out of his seat faster than he thought possible. Leo, Jason, and Piper had agreed to meet them out front and go to a club together to celebrate the first performance. 

Nico shifts from one foot to the other as they wait out in the cold. Jake keeps talking about the performance and how Leo was robbed and how the audience and judges are biased, just because Leo’s group are rookies. Nico doesn’t have the energy to listen, too hung up on worrying over what will happen when Leo sees him again. 

When Leo finally emerges from the studio, he’s not alone. Behind him, Luke and Alabaster follow to the parking lot where Nico and the others are waiting. Nico thinks for a second that Luke and Alabaster are simply headed in the same direction and will leave once Leo, Piper, and Jason meet with Nico and his friends. All his hopes are squashed though when Leo and his little gang of dance buddies stop in front of Nico and his friends. Leo’s holding the bouquet of flowers that Luke got on stage earlier, a big, gummy smile on his face. He looks on top of the world.  
Within a second he’s hanging off Jake, arms wound tightly around him, his feet barely on the ground. Jake grins and swings him around, praising his performance. When he lets Leo down, he ruffles his hair and tells him to do even better next time. Jake congratulates Piper and Jason as well, who both look more than a little exhausted. Leo doesn’t say anything to Nico, but he also doesn’t ignore him. He sends Nico a sweet, private smile that says, ‘thank you for coming’ and Nico couldn’t ask for more. 

“I know we agreed to go out for drinks and shit,” Leo says, addressing everyone, “But Luke and Alabaster invited us out for dinner. They said you guys can come along as well. How cool is that?”  
J  
ake shrugs and nods at Luke, “As long as you’re paying, hot-shot.”

“Sure. I’m inviting you out, aren’t I?”

Leo squeals in excitement and gives Luke’s arm a firm squeeze before telling him to lead the way to whatever restaurant he’d had in mind. They split off into three groups, one in Will’s car, one in Jake’s, and one in Luke’s. Leo goes with Luke. Nico tries not to let it bother him.

The restaurant Luke takes them to isn’t too fancy, but it’s not shabby either and Nico wonders how Luke can afford to pay for such a massive dinner. They all sit together at one big table, the waiters seem to already know Luke and Alabaster, and Luke orders a round of shots for everyone to celebrate.

“This place isn’t too far away from the dorms, so we’ll probably come here more often,” Luke tells Piper, Jason, and Leo, after everyone orders.

“Dorms?” Jake asks, “Why would it need to be close to a Uni dorm?”

“Not a campus dorm. We start shooting tomorrow so everyone’s moving into the dorms officially then. And this is the best place to eat after practice and shooting.”

Jake whips his head around to Leo, “You’re moving into a dorm? What are you shooting?”

“Uh, yeah. Part of the NYCDF is a reality show thing about the dancers or whatever.”

Narrowing his eyes at Leo, Jake slaps his shoulder, “And you were going to tell me this when?”

“Today?”

“You’re moving in tomorrow!” Jake nearly yells, “How am I supposed to make sure you move in well and don’t die? I need to make sure it’s a good place. God, are you stupid? Mom’s gonna kill me if I let you move into a dorm with random people who are out to get you.”

“I’ve lived in a dorm before,” Leo mumbles but Jake doesn’t seem interested in hearing it, too caught up in his crisis.

Luke smiles charmingly at Jake and places a hand on his shoulder across the table, “Don’t worry, man. I promise I’ll take care of Leo while we’re there.”

Nico’s heart drops into his stomach and he thinks he might pass out. He doesn’t like the way that sounds at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the show theyre on is loosly based on hit the stage if anyone knows that so ya  
> also this is turning out a lot longer than I meant it to but whatever such is life  
> idk where this is going yet but thanks for coming along on the ride lmao
> 
> comments, kudos and stuff ofc appreciated

**Author's Note:**

> if you've made it this far I'm proud and thankful so that's that on that
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll stick around for the rest please and thank you
> 
> Comments, Kudos and whatnot are absolutely appreciated they are my life's blood nig
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading I hope you liked it :)


End file.
